Finding the Founding (Part III): Profit, Taxes and Colonial Models

Even when England got it right, England got it wrong …. at least initially, they got it wrong. Eventually, England did get it right, and as it seems so often with that realm, they got it more correct than most ever did.

England realized by the mid-1600s that the road to greatness was going to be through industrial agriculture in New World colonies.  At the same time England embarked on two divergent tasks: developing the world’s first modern democracy, and becoming the dominant power in the slave trade. The English Civil War of the 1640s brought about the notion of rights and votes, a republic (that deteriorated into a dictatorship), religious liberty and shared government. At the same time English maritime power was invading Atlantic trade routes and taking over coastal fortresses in Africa which provided the foundation for the slave trade.

Elmina Castle: A slave fortress off the Coast of modern day Ghana 

This second task of taking over control of the trade in African slaves coming in to New World colonies propelled England from a small time kingdom trying to gain back some semblance of continental power into a global empire. The cost of empire – the cost of wealth, the cost of power, even the cost of democracy – was through the brutal destruction and devastation of millions of lives the likes of which … oh, actually, just the typical d and d of empires, but capitalism provided its own sinister twist.

Capitalism as an economic system was still in its formative practical stage – in Europe, anyway, having been found in its proto form in the aftermath of Muhammad’s Revolution in the Arab Empires from 700-1000 c.e. What was developing in the New World was still a century away from its theoretical underpinnings in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. The privatization of wealth occurring in Europe at this time was as Revolutionary as the steps toward representative government. Being able to retain the produce of investment and labor meant accessing personal autonomy in ways that blood based hierarchies of a Feudal system did not allow – since all wealth remained a function of the system, and was therefore public in nature. Government, the collector of public wealth, gained from private wealth accumulation through taxation on investment and production and therefore gained more as the private accumulator gained more. Under such a system king’s like Henry, but we’ll call him Harry, made off with a fortune. Even though in law taxes had been defined as “gifts” it was more like extortion – pay this or else, but taxes also added to incentive – you want more, you gotta earn more to make up for the government’s cut. And taxes did more important things than add incentive to the incentive based system of capitalistic economies.

Out of context, Blackstone seems a real tax hater,
but without them civil society can't survive.
But who has time to read all of his volumes Commentaries on the Laws of England

Taxes, of course, went to the opulent lifestyle of the main collectors of taxes, Kings and Queens. As public income, however, taxes also went to public purposes, mostly in the public expenditure of protecting the system. Navies protected the instruments of investment – navies protected holdings in Africa, protected trade routes, protected colonies -- Investment to protect investment. And in the 1600s invest England did in navies and in the spaces navies could help acquire, colonies. By the 1650s England had begun to acquire Caribbean colonies, most notably Barbados and Jamaica, and these colonies were turned into sources of profit both private and public. But England’s foray into New World Capitalism diverged from the typical Columbian model at first, and was possible effected by the growing ideas of a democratic society brewing at home.

Barbados in itself reveals the two models of colonization followed by the English: settlement colonies and industrial colonies. Barbados started as the former and converted to the latter. When Barbados was first settled it was done so primarily by family groupings who came to work the land and be independent. Being independent meant controlling your own life, having land, producing for yourself and your family – not being dependent on the good graces of your hereditary lord. It was, for all intents and purposes, the middle class ideal that motivated much of the theory and practice of the the English Civil War. But at the time when democracy was growing, and growning and mutating into Cromwell’s dictatorship, colonial ventures were also “growing” because of the potential for profit. So leaving aside political ideas for now, Barbados began a conversion to cash-crop industrial production that was eventually propelled into massive profit through slave labor. After initial experiments in what historians have categorized as family farms, cash crop production in tobacco and other items was underway by the 1650s. And just like in Barbados’ poorer cousin colony, Virginia, the main labor source were English “indentured servants.”

Sign your Life Away document or
The good old days before Unions

I put that in quotes because they may as well be called slaves, but technically in law they were contracted laborers who signed their life over to a “master” for a designated period, so that defines them as only temporary slaves, or “indentured servants.” Since the life expectancy of laborers in the New World was less than the 7 years of most indentures, kind of means you signed over your life. But by the 1680s this labor system, as also happened in Virginia, changed from “temporary” white English servants to “permanent” African slaves – and the crop changed from tobacco to sugar. In so doing the settlement colony of English seeking independence transformed into an industrial colony of English investors seeking sugar profits through African labor – just like the Spanish model before them.

The Spanish Colonial Model, inspired by Columbus, developed systems of mass production through slave labor that created tremendous wealth. Great for wealth creation for investors but a nightmare of brutality for those creating that wealth in the fields. Colonies like Barbados and Jamaica showed a clear contradiction that capitalism can present for the growth and development of democracy. By 1700 England, soon to be “Great” Britain, was growing into the world’s pre-eminent empire on the strength of its industrial colonies. Ironically, at home, political ideas were becoming increasingly focused, not on profit, but on the nature of the community and its obligations to individuals within the realm. This conversation would find a willing home in a set of colonies to the north of the Caribbean, where the contradiction of capitalism created a clear divide with attempts to realize independence.

Finding the Founding (Part II): The North Forgotten

For over 100 years Spain had a virtual monopoly on developing sugar colonies, destroying populations and eradicating cultures. Sweet success, literally and figuratively. During that century other Euro nations were arming themselves and they soon would join the fray. Spain became the “King of the Mountain,” like we used to play when I was a kid. Some kid is on top of a mound of dirt (that’s the King) and the rest try to drag that kid off the mound – the mountain. Not incredibly complicated, but it got you dirty, and that is the goal of being a kid. England, France and the Netherlands wanted to play and they wanted to pull Spain off their mound of dirt. For us in the United States today, England is the one “colonizer” with which we are most familiar, but what became most important to England in the New World wasn’t what we spend most of our time studying at school. Not even close.

So let’s see, so far I have used the word fray, and originally spelled it Frey. I referred to a mountain and a King and made an allusion in the title. The Game of Thrones references are quite fitting as the scramble for the New World, its lands and resources, and likewise control of the African Slave Trade, was much like the competing houses in GOT. Everyone believes in their own cause and discounts the cause of any rival – and the regular people, well, they likewise just get stabbed by Hounds and Needles. England is the ultimate winner, and just like __________ (to be filled in with the name of whoever survives Season 8), will sit on the iron throne of imperial domination in the New World and Africa …. And everywhere else for that matter. But it wasn’t the North American colonies that brought about an empire upon which the sun never set. No, this started in the Caribbean, just where Columbus started it for Spain.

In the 1500s Spain gobbled up the New World and controlled the Atlantic to become Europe’s premier power …. and Europe itself was primed to become the power of the world. England was not such a power, but its monarchs were setting out plans Baelish style to achieve a better place in the sun. After the War of the Roses between the Lancasters and Yorks, which formed the background for George R. R. Martin’s fiction, England was a second rate power in a third rate region. Henry VIII changed all that with a bit of double dealing with his rival Spain.

This is as close to GOT as Henry will ever come

Because of Henry’s girth and wastefulness in managing the resources of the realm, he appears to be the ultimate Robert Baratheon, but really his recklessness is more the style of Tywin of House Lannister – after all Henry is the heir of the line of Lancaster. He spent, borrowed and strong-armed, in a will to power that would have made Nietzsche proud. His main goal appears to have been reclaiming lands in France – if not all of France – for England. To do this he was sometimes ally of France (weird) and the Holy Roman Empire (Germany, sort of) but most of all to his in-laws, Spain. Henry VII who won the War of the Roses and invested England heavily into features of the wool trade seems to have understood that for England to grow great it needed to hitch its wagon to the rising power of Spain – a power emerging not from Dark Ages wealth in land and peasants and European trade goods (like wool) but in colonial investment in New World sugar production. Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to Henry 7’s desire to forge an alliance by blood, the main instrument of diplomacy in pre-modern societies. Henry 7 had his heir married to Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter, Catherine. Originally that heir was Arthur, but Arthur died before consummation and Henry 7 had to finagle a match with his new heir, Henry who would be the 8^th of his name.

But Henry 8 seems not to be satisfied to be tied to Spain’s ship. The importance of all his marriages is not really the intrigue behind trying to produce an heir but rather his wish to make England #1 among the powers of Europe – to win the real game of thrones. Henry 8 got rid of Catherine, not because of their mutual inability to gain a male heir as most historians go on about, but to break with Spain, break with the Catholic world and to break into new sources of revenue in his quest to make England a dominant power. Was he the real world Daenerys? The breaker of chains? The breaker of wheels? There was a dragon on his coat of arms.

Henry's Coat of Arms

But the wheel he wanted to break had nothing to do with slavery or mad kings as with Westeros’ Targaeyon claimant, and not even because of religion, as he was in early life a devout Catholic. Henry’s bad breaking had everything to do with Caesarian ambition – to seize property and resources, in this case from the Roman Catholic Church in England. Henry 8 made his own church for the love of power and a need for money, and to do that he had to get rid of Catherine, and his ties to Spain (and their most “Catholic” monarchs). Therefore, Henry 8 had enough money to pursue military affairs on the continent.

Henry VIII never realized that the true game of thrones was not about land in Europe, however, but would be played in the Atlantic World and in colonies in the New World. He was still thinking as a Middle-Ages warrior king rather than a modern monarch of a new age. In the new age wealth and power was not going to be about land and bread, but about trade, commerce and the mass production of whatever could make more and more wealth. Henry 8 failed to get England into the real game which would take place out at sea, and right where Columbus had left it – the New World. For England that would be left to Henry 8’s daughter and eventual heir, Elizabeth, and to her heirs the Stuarts. England enters the fray!

History and Football Combined -- Super Bowl Interlude

Declaration of Dedication to the Philadelphia Eagles

When in the course of any football season, it becomes necessary for one fan base to state its resolve to those bands which have connected them to their team, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Football and Fandom entitle them, a decent respect among football fans everywhere requires that they should declare the foundation of their dedication.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all true Eagles fans are dedicated, that they are endowed by their allegiance to certain undeniable and unalienable qualities, that among these are Commitment, Passion and the Pursuit of a Super Bowl Championship – That to utilize these qualities the Eagles have been instituted in Philadelphia, deriving their goals and rewards from the enthusiasm of the fans – That whenever the Eagles take the field to destroy their opponents, it is the right of the fans to support and cheer the Eagles forward to victory.  Loyalty, indeed, will dictate that our love of the Eagles long established will never be changed, and accordingly all experience hath shown that Eagles fans are more disposed to suffer, under any circumstances, rather than abolish the depth of feeling we will show our team.  Through the long years of abuses and slanders we have endured from the National Media, and the heartbreak and anguish of seasons of woe, it is our right, it is our duty to maintain our mutual support and affection for our team, our city and our region.  The history of the fans under this present coach presents our fears with promise and possibility, having in all of this the direct object for a successful season and an NFL championship.  To demonstrate our dedication, let the Facts be submitted to a candid world.

We have refused to express allegiance for any other NFL franchise, even in our quest for fantasy points.

We have forbidden the blatant display of other teams jersey’s without expressing our displeasure.

We have refused to accommodate the opinions of the vile Cowboy and Giants fans in our midst, and refuted their arguments against us at every turn.

We have called together tailgate and watch parties at places usual, comfortable, both close and far from Lincoln Financial Field, for the sole purpose of rooting our team in win or in loss.

We have dissolved our memories of failures past to embrace the hope of future grid-iron glory.

We have refused for a long time, over 50 years, to cause ourselves to lose faith in the prospect that one day the Lombardi Trophy will parade down Broad Street.

We have endeavored to prevent our children and friends from cheering for another team, and for that purpose have obstructed their view of any other NFL franchise.

We have made our players and organization dependent on our will to continue in their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.

We have erected signs that express our commitment and passion, even to the objection of our beloved players.

We have held sacred the memory of those who have gone before us from Concrete Chuck to Reggie and Jerome, from Waters both Ricky and Andre to those that take the field today.

We have remained in awe of 4^th and 26.

We have always loved 5, even as he will always love us.

We have kept among us, during the off-season, our gear and jerseys and team bumper stickers.

We have combined as fans to subject the Nation to the fervor of what it means to be a true fan, even when we have been subjected to ridicule by those who do not understand our commitment in many instances:
For throwing snowballs at Santa, whose disheveled and drunken appearance demanded action:
For cheering when a fallen star from another team appeared not to rise, but then quickly changed to cheers to acknowledge the competency of our opponent:
For offenses against public decorum that are only highlighted because we are Philadelphia Eagles fans

We will boo

We will boo our team to voice the passion of our love and the ire of our disappointment.

We will boo opposing teams to voice the passion of our hate for them

We will boo ourselves or anyone that stands to diminish the pleasure we derive from pursuing our role as fans, for in this as in all things, this is Philadelphia and in Philadelphia “We fight” --

In every stage of every season we will remain true in our Passion and Dedication to Our team.  Our repeated cheers will be sustained by standing ovations and our fight song.  We will defy those who scorn and ridicule us and maintain our character as the toughest and most dedicated fan base in the NFL.

We, therefore, the Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, by the authority of the good people of our city and region, solemnly publish and declare our dedication in good times or in bad, in victory or in loss, to the Philadelphia Eagles

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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