[Marxism] Fwd: Letters: Letter from Marx to Pavel Vasilyevich Annenkov

[Louis Proyect]

Direct slavery is as much the pivot upon which our present-day 
industrialism turns as are machinery, credit, etc. Without slavery there 
would be no cotton, without cotton there would be no modern industry. It 
is slavery which has given value to the colonies, it is the colonies 
which have created world trade, and world trade is the necessary 
condition for large-scale machine industry. Consequently, prior to the 
slave trade, the colonies sent very few products to the Old World, and 
did not noticeably change the face of the world. Slavery is therefore an 
economic category of paramount importance. Without slavery, North 
America, the most progressive nation, would he transformed into a 
patriarchal country. Only wipe North America off the map and you will 
get anarchy, the complete decay of trade and modern civilisation. But to 
do away with slavery would be to wipe America off the map.

https://marxists.anu.edu.au/archive/marx/works/1846/letters/46_12_28.htm