“Only to take advantage and leave it destroyed”: Colonization and the transformation of nature into a means of commodity production

Abstract

Based on the colonial chronicles of the 1st and 2nd centuries, the article shows how the process of Portuguese colonization in America meant from the outset the establishment of a practical relationship with nature, in which it is conceptually positioned as a means of commodity production. Contrary to the most common idea that industrial productive forces inaugurated environmental destruction, the article argues, based on the Brazilian colonial experience, as described in the chronicles of the first two centuries, that capital, already in its hegemonically merchant form, maintained a predatory relationship with nature. In describing the colony's natural assets, the chroniclers present them as economic resources suitable for the commercial purposes of colonization. As an exercise in historical interpretation, the article explains this process of social transformation of nature by the development of merchant's capital during the primitive accumulation of capital.