It is not Trump who is to blame for his ‘madness’ but the nature of contemporary capitalism. Liberal opinion believed that capitalism could do without colonies and Trump is discovering the vacuity of this belief. Capitalism requires a stable medium in which to hold wealth, in addition to physical capital stock. Indeed, these apparently contradictory demands made on the leading capitalist country, demands whose fulfilment is conducive to the success of world capitalism, were met over a long period of time because of colonialism. Britain, as the leading capitalist country of the pre-WWI era, ran balance of payments deficits vis-à-vis the emerging capitalist countries of that period, namely Continental Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Source: The Telegraph February 04, 2026 02:56 UTC