Beckert- environmental impact and rise of capitalism

I saw several similarities between Beckert and Cronon’s discussion of the land, decimation and expropriation of the native population, over-use of natural resources, soil exhaustion, and European expansion –and how all these factors relate to commerce and rising capitalism.  Both authors start their discussion far back in time, even prior to human influence on the land and then follow the progression of land-use and agricultural development by the people native to that land.  Cronon focuses on a smaller area geographically (New England), but has a wider focus in that he looks at many different kinds of plants and animals while Beckert’s geographic focus is wider (the world), but he is only looking only at those places which grow cotton.  I thought it was interesting that both authors discussed how the native peoples tended to grow what they needed for their families and maybe a little extra for trade and that they also inter-planted different species of plants in the same plot of land  - for example Cronon mentions the Native Americans planting corn and beans together which chemically benefited the soil and nutritionally benefited the people and Beckert mentions that Korea inter-planted cotton and beans (p.15).  It seems to me that both authors try to show that the native cultures had created a balance between what they needed and what the land could reasonable supply.  However, both authors also describe that the incursion of Europeans into the native lands upset the natural balance because they tended to be mono-crop planters, which eventually exhausted the soil, requiring them to expand into new lands and territories (p.103-105).  In addition to the impact on the land and natural environment, both authors discuss the influence and impact the Europeans had on the indigenous peoples, whether indirectly by introducing germs and diseases which had a catastrophic impact on the native people, or directly through war and forced expropriation.  In particular, when large populations were decimated due to disease, this created what Beckert called “empty land” and Europeans considered the land free for the taking and encouraged the Europeans expansionism (p. 105). 

Regarding commerce and rising capitalism, both authors describe a similar scenario of Europeans first moving into an area, setting up a system which collected goods from the local peoples, and then redistributed those goods to other markets (usually European) (p.20).  However, at some point the Europeans began to exploit the native peoples and the land to various degrees.  To me, this process didn’t seem quite as premeditated or even insidious in Cronon’s account whereas Beckert doesn’t seem to pull any punches and shows the process as being very deliberate and calculating on the part of the Europeans.  Regardless of the initial intent on the part of the Europeans, I thought it was very interesting how many similarities there were between Cronon and Beckert in their discussions of the early stages of commerce and the rise of capitalism.