Let’s start with what the capitalist starts with. M: money. Next, we have credit. A bank or a queen or anyone who already has surplus wealth extends a line of credit to some explorer to gather a group of armed thugs, go out into the world, locate wealth and steal it.

Here’s an extremely simplified, and necessarily incomplete representation of capitalism’s basic economic structure. It is the ultimate vicious cycle. I’m also going to explain each part in detail, because it’s more clear if we see it unfold, rather than all at once.

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