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ABSTRACT
In 1920, Vladimir Lenin defined “imperialism” as national exploitation, which raises the question of how nations exploited other nations throughout history. This article will argue that answering this question requires introducing new concepts into Marxist discourse that can capture competition among multiple states and currencies, namely the “hegemon-rival” dialectic between the “currency hegemon” and the “mercantile rivals.” Focussing on the British empire, this article will show that British currency hegemony based on the gold standard functioned by a system that can be called “bimetallic apartheid,” which involved arbitraging the value of gold against silver in order to facilitate the plundering of India and China, however, as other states began to industrially “catch up” with Britain (i.e., the “mercantile rivals”), the credibility of the British gold standard was undermined.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The letter “d” refers to “penny.”
2 One silver peso equals 16 grams of silver. 1 US silver dollar equals 24.06 grams of silver. Therefore, 28 million silver dollars equal 42.1 million silver pesos.
3 Total production of silver from 1808–1856 was 1.022 million ounces. One silver dollar equals 24.06 grams of silver. One ounce equals 28.3495 grams. Therefore, the total production (1808–1856) was 1.022 million ounces multiplied by 28.3495 and then divided by 1,000,000, which equal 28,974 tonnes of silver. The amount of the outflow from China were 384 million silver dollars, which multiplied by 24.06 equal 9,239 tonnes of silver. Therefore, the share of the outflow from China in total world production means 9,239 tonnes divided by 28,974 tonnes, which equals 31.9%.
4 The amount of 570 million silver dollars equal 13,714 tonnes of silver, while 367 million silver dollars equal 8,830 tonnes of silver.
5 The amount of 570 million silver dollars equals 13,714 tonnes of silver. Therefore 13,714 / 28,974 tonnes of silver is roughly equivalent to 47%.
6 Total new silver production (1493–1856) = 4,988,620,340 ounces (28.3495 grams) = 141,425 tonnes of silver. Outflow to Britain = 13,714 tonnes. Therefore, 13,714 / 141,425 is roughly equivalent to 10%.
7 At that time, 1 Kuping tael = 37.3 grams of silver. Therefore, 200 million Kuping taels = 7,460 tonnes of silver.
8 At that time, 200,000,000 Kuping taels (37.3 grams) = 7,460 tonnes. World production from 1896–1900 was 23,486 tonnes. Therefore, indemnity as % of periodic production = 7,460 tonnes / 23,486 tonnes = 32%.
9 Eight-Nation alliance comprised: Britain, Russia, Germany, United States, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan.
10 There were 982,238,150 Haikwan taels of silver to be exact.
11 The term “SCA” (systemic cycles of accumulation) is raised by Arrighi (Citation1994, 129).
12 Gold production from 1493 to 1850 equals $3.314 billion USD, and from 1851 to 1875 $3.317 billion USD.
13 According to figures for 1801 to 1900, gold production amounted to 5 billion ounces, silver production amounted to 0.373 billion ounces, 5 billion /0.373 billion = 13.5.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jay Tharappel
Jay Tharappel received his doctorate from the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is an early career researcher whose doctoral thesis reconceptualised the concept of “imperialism” into a structural and theoretical explanation of how cycles of currency hegemony create the long-term conditions for geopolitical conflict. His research spans monetary theory, financial technology, world systems analysis, international relations, geostrategy, and “longue durée” economic history.