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Originally Posted by Luciom
Ye so Brazil only had the slaves, USA had other stuff, and what made the USA far richer was entirely the other stuff, plantations with slaves are what kept it restrained until they gave up on it and they became actually rich.
It's neither extreme. There were slaves in the North who did build infrastructure and the wealth from cotton and tobacco was also instrumental in the early growth of the US. USA just resisted the colonial powers and stopped exporting raw materials just so it could import the manufactured goods and did the manufacturing itself.
If you've read Adam Smith you might understand that the corn (or equiv) is important and the people who grow and harvest it are part of that whether they are internal slaves, serf/peasants, or if the colonial power is exploiting slaves abroad and importing the raw materials.
Brazil suffered from extreme Capitalism and lack of planning. In the 19th Century, following the market, it became largely a one-trick pony, that trick being coffee. In the US, Alexander Hamilton was wise and used protections to make sure that US industry developed despite the fact that English manufacturing was more efficient at the time.