As for slavery, it existed in every pre‑capitalist civilisation. It was practised by Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, Chinese, Mongols, Polynesians, Arabs, Africans, Aztecs and Incas.

What made capitalism unique was its unprecedented emphasis on the rights of the individual, including the freedom to make contracts unmediated by birth, caste or tradition. It is no coincidence that capitalist Britain led the campaign against international slavery, even diverting ships from the Napoleonic wars to run down slavers. This Wednesday marks the 180th anniversary of the manumission of the last slaves on British territory, who had been redesignated as apprentices for a transitional period following the entry into force of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. The “colonialism” that Owen claims “cannot be divorced from capitalism” was, in Britain’s case, at least partly driven by abolitionists, who could see that the shutting down of the Atlantic route had turned the African slave trade inwards.

I won’t pretend that slavery was abolished for wholly ethical reasons. It also became economically redundant as the invention of steam and later combustion engines allowed machines that did not need housing or feeding to do work that had previously required hundreds of hands. That, too, was an achievement of capitalism.