More on the New History of Capitalism

 Looking more into the "New History of Capitalism" (NHC) movement, I found this article: 

The “New History of Capitalism” grounds the rise of industrial capitalism on the production of raw cotton by American slaves. Recent works include Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton, Walter Johnson's River of Dark Dreams, and Edward Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told. All three authors mishandle historical evidence and mis-characterize important events in ways that affect their major interpretations on the nature of slavery, the workings of plantations, the importance of cotton and slavery in the broader economy, and the sources of the Industrial Revolution and world development.

And also this article:  

The New History of Capitalism (NHC) emphasizes that slavery was a central, global institution that both emerged from and supported capitalist development. This article begins by outlining the intellectual background that supports NHC’s main conclusions. It then argues that understanding capitalism’s transformation requires a global perspective.

The authors raise three main critiques:
1. Overemphasis on Coercion: NHC places too much weight on the role of coercion in driving 18th-century economic growth. The authors suggest that instead of focusing on coercion (sometimes called "war capitalism"), more attention should be given to the influence of European states and empires in shaping global capitalism.
2, Misleading Timeline: NHC incorrectly links slavery—particularly U.S. cotton production—with the rise of industrialization. The article argues that industrialization began much earlier, in the late 1600s, and was already well underway by the time large-scale cotton production began in the American South. In the early stages, sugar—not cotton—was the dominant plantation crop.
3, Neglect of Consumption: NHC focuses too heavily on production, especially slave plantations, and overlooks the importance of consumer demand. The growth in consumption of goods like sugar, rice, tobacco, cotton, and coffee played a major role in the development of industrial capitalism. To fully understand slavery’s impact, we must also consider how it supported expanding consumer markets, not just how it shaped production systems.

All of the above eventually led me to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which explains the debate between historians and economists over slavery.