#marxisthistory — Public Fediverse posts

These accounting practices played a decisive role in the birth of capitalism and its evolution. ‘Standardised accounting made it possible to separate ownership from management, a separation that was still rare in British and European companies more than a century later,’ the authors point out.

Accounting also made it possible to strengthen control over the workforce and intensify its labour. The plantation system confirmed Marx's observation a century later: increased productivity goes hand in hand with deteriorating working conditions. ‘Working conditions worsen as management and technology improve,’ the book notes. Gradually, the plantations of the British West Indies in the 18th century came to resemble the large factories of the following century, with the added violence of the slave system, where those who resisted were whipped, beaten and hanged.

#marxistHistory #factory #farming #accounting #workingConditions #labour #workConditions #labor #humanRights #agriBusiness