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Gold is required in large quantities only in a society which produces a very large economic surplus and can afford to transform part of that surplus into gold for prestige purposes (as in India) or into coinage and money to promote capitalism (as in Western Europe).

— Walter Rodney How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

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More quotes by Walter Rodney

In the epoch of imperialism, the bankers became the aristocrats of the capitalist world.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

A country’s wealth comes not from taxes but from production.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

For the only great men among the unfree and the oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

To put it another way, the social (class) relations of capitalism are now outmoded, just as slave and feudal relations became outmoded in their time.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

The first prerequisite for mastery of the environment is knowledge of that environment.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Walter Rodney (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.