On Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik’s A Theory of Imperialism

This book is a brilliant exposition of the origin of capitalist colonialism and imperialism and its sustenance. The two major planks of the book are its demonstration of the fallacy of the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage and the necessary depression of the incomes of the Third World peasantry (and artisans), and later on, of the workers of the metropolitan countries as well under capitalist imperialism. <br /> <br /> The domination of the world economy by the first hegemonic power, namely, Great Britain, began with the mechanization of the cotton textile industry, which, starting i...