Eric Williams
Trinidadian historian and statesman (1911–1981), first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (1962–1981). His Oxford DPhil thesis, published as Capitalism and Slavery (1944), made the original, sweeping argument that profits from the Atlantic slave trade and slave plantations provided much of the capital and demand that financed British industrialization. The book was largely marginalized in economic history through the mid-20th century (Engerman and others argued the quantitative contribution was too small) but has been resuscitated by a 21st-century revival (Inikori, Beckert) that reframes the question at the systems level rather than as a national-accounting exercise. A foundational figure in Atlantic history and in Caribbean historiography.
Associated positions
Section titled “Associated positions”- Empire, slavery & unequal exchange — the original proponent.
Key works
Section titled “Key works”- Capitalism and Slavery (1944).
- From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492–1969 (1970).