Review Article – On A Theory of Imperialism

Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik, A Theory of Imperialism, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2016, xxviii + 212 pages, Rs 695

This book is a brilliant exposition of the origin of capitalist colonialism and imperialism and its sustenance. The two major planks of the book are its demonstration of the fallacy of the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage and the necessary depression of the incomes of the third world peasantry (and artisans), and, later on, of the workers of the metropolitan countries as well.