Capitalist political economy and the political economy of capitalisms: 2022 Rik Davidson/Studies in Political Economy Book Prize

Abstract

In 2022, Heather Whiteside of the University of Waterloo was recognized with the Rik Davidson/Studies in Political Economy Book Prize for her book Capitalist Political Economy: Thinkers and Theories (Routledge, 2020). This article is an edited version of the book prize talk that she delivered at the Canadian Political Science Association’s 2023 Annual Meeting, held at York University in Toronto. Professor Whiteside summarizes the book briefly and presents some recent works on the political economy of capitalisms, specifically regarding proprietary settler colonialism and Coast Salish capitalism.

Keywords:

• Capitalism
• Hudson’s Bay Company
• political economy
• settler colonialism

Notes

1 Cox, “Social Forces, States and World Orders,” 128.

2 Agrawal, Nuts and Bolts.

3 Ronald Ian King Davidson—also known as R.I.K., RIK, or Rik Davidson (1929–2006)—was an editor at University of Toronto Press (UTP) from 1960 to 1988. He was born in Scotland and emigrated to Canada in 1955; his impact on Canadian scholarly publishing and political economy in particular is thoroughly evident in the Acknowledgements sections of the many books he not just edited but clearly helped shape and shepherd. For example, see Kontos, Powers, Possessions, and Freedom; Axelrod, Scholars and Dollars; Forster, A Conjunction of Interests; Clement and Vosko, Changing Canada.

4 Whiteside, ed. Canadian Political Economy.

5 Whiteside, Capitalist Political Economy.

6 Whiteside, “Capitalist Political Economy.”

7 See Helleiner, The Contested World Economy.

8 Whiteside, “Company Colonies and Historical Layering.”

9 Hobsbawm, Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations.

10 Wood, “The Separation of the Economic and the Political in Capitalism,” 67.

11 Royal charter provisions gave companies the right to establish colonies, make laws, create governments, monopolize markets, and engage non-Christians in warfare. For more detail, see Whiteside, “Company Colonies and Historical Layering.”

12 Whiteside, “Company Colonies and Historical Layering.”

13 Whiteside, “Way Back on Land Back.”

14 Craven, The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1607–1689, 187.

15 Hudson’s Bay Archives E.7/12, Red River Settlement Ledger, 1815–1822.

16 Ross, The Red River Settlement, 155–57.

17 Recounted in Ross, The Red River Settlement, 69–72.

18 Ross, The Red River Settlement, 135.

19 Ross, The Red River Settlement, 153.

20 Ross, The Red River Settlement, 78.

21 Rennie, “More than a Fur Trading Post.”.

22 Rich, Hudson’s Bay Company 1670–1870, Vol. III, 760.

23 Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.”.

24 Manitoba Historical Society, “Lord Selkirk Treaty with the Indians, July 18, 1817.”

25 Manitoba Historical Society, “Lord Selkirk Treaty with the Indians, July 18, 1817.”

26 Perry, “Designing Dispossession,” 164. It is also worth noting that Canada would later negotiate Treaty 1 as if the Selkirk Treaty did not exist, and the 1870 Rupert’s Land Order relieved Hudson’s Bay Company of any responsibility for territory and settlements with First Nations in Rupert’s Land.

27 Wolfenden, Conveyance of Land; Cook et al., To Share not Surrender.

28 Harris, Making Native Space, 19.

29 Madill, BC Indian Treaties in Historical Perspective, 5–6.

30 Foster, “British Columbia,” 332.

31 Blomley, “Making Space for Property,” 1293.

32 See Mcneil, “The Source, Nature, and Content of the Crown’s Underlying Title to Aboriginal Title Lands.”

33 First Nations Tax Commission, “First Nations Property Ownership Initiative.”

34 See First Nations Land Management Resource Centre, “Myths and Facts.”

35 Jobin and Riddle, “The Rise of the First Nations Land Management Regime in Canada.”

36 Pasternak, “How Capitalism Will Save Colonialism”; Hall, “Divide and Conquer.”

37 Tsawwassen Economic Development Corporation, https://tsawwassenfirstnation.com/economic-development/.

38 Nch’kay’ Development Corporation, https://www.nchkay.com/.

39 Aquilini Group, https://aquilinidevelopment.com/.

40 Sen̓áḵw, https://senakw.com/.

41 Whiteside, “Reconciling with Capitalism.”

42 Whiteside, “The State’s Estate.”

43 Canada, Fall Economic Statement.

44 Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.”

45 Dyck and Bula, “First Nations bands to pay millions for provincial portion of Jericho Lands.”

46 Dyck and Bula, “First Nations bands to pay millions for provincial portion of Jericho Lands.”

47 See Whiteside, “Privatizing Canadian Government Real Estate.”

48 Paperny, “Court Tosses Out Injunction Barring Property Sale.”

49 Paperny, “Court Tosses Out Injunction Barring Property Sale.”

50 Paperny, “Court Tosses Out Injunction Barring Property Sale.”

51 Quoted in Lipset, “Marx, Engels, and America’s Political Parties,” 96.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather Whiteside

Heather Whiteside teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.