ABSTRACT
Instead of attempting to give a definition of capitalism and a description of the main characteristics of the system in the region, what follows moves directly to the question of when and how societies in the Americas “transitioned to capitalism”. Different variations of what could be grouped together as “discrete models” have been used to explain the origins of capitalism in the Americas. The debate on the North American transition at its forefront contains the issue of how to characterize the “peculiar institution” of slavery and its relationship with capitalism. At the same time, the critique of the “circulationist” approach to slavery as capitalism on the grounds of its insertion into the world market had several appealing conclusions when pointing out the social relations of production created by the slave system. Colonial capitalism was then organically structured around profit-oriented productive structures, intended for the supply of the world market: the social system in the region was externally determined.
