One element, however, tends to go flagrantly missing in even the most vivid conspiracy theories about the banking system, let alone in official accou… - David Graeber

It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor.

In our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one's work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it.

To take what might seem an "objective", macro-economic approach to the origins of the world economy would be to treat the behavior of early European explorers, merchants, and conquerors as if they were simply rational responses to opportunities—as if this were just what anyone would have done in the same situation. This is what the use of equations so often does: make it seem perfectly natural to assume that, if the price of silver in China is twice what it is in Seville, and inhabitants of Seville are capable of getting their hands on large quantities of silver and transporting it to China, then clearly they will, even if doing so requires the destruction of entire civilizations. Or if there is a demand for sugar in England, and enslaving millions is the easiest way to acquire labor to produce it, then it is inevitable that some will enslave them.