According to Monbiot, capitalism would be born in enterprises such as the environmental exploitation of Madeira in the XV century. That is a weird take, not so much about the history of modern capitalism (on which I know too little) but of natural exploitation 2/n
The kind of slash/burn/abandon pattern he describes is, in fact, common to many previous societies. In my book I explain how ancient Greek and Chinese writers (including Plato!) denounced the devastation of their natural environment to exploit resources 3/n