The theme of capitalism and economics are clearly evident in Defoe's novel. There are numerous passages in the novel that point to Crusoe's capitalist tendencies. Robinson Crusoe has a home and family, yet he leaves them in order to improve his own economic condition. He spends the opening sections of the novel in heavy pursuit of money. He readily admits to the reader his reasons for travel.
Crusoe's island gives him total autonomy to realize his economic goals.
In Marxist terms, Crusoe's experiences on the island represent the inborn economic value of labor over capital. Crusoe frequently observes that the money he rescued from the ship is worthless on the island, especially when compared to his tools.
Defoe's point is that money has no essential value and is only valuable as it can be used in trade.
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Robinson soon learns by experience. having rescued
a watch and pen and ink from the wreck, he begins, like a true-born Briton, to keep a set of books. His stock-book contains a list of the objects of utility that belong to him, of the operations necessary for their production; and lastly, of the labor-time that definite quantities of those
objects have cost him.
The fact that Crusoe gets rid of his social ties early in life is indicative of his capitalistic nature. He believed that he did not need emotional ties to bind him to one geographical location or one specific profession. He thus breaks free of his family for purely classic reason of homo economicus i.e. to improve his economic condition. -that it is necessary to better his economic condition. "Something fatal in that propension of nature" forces him into a life of adventure and takes him away from boring life of "settling to business". Crusoe first starts as a plantation owner and there his relationship with a slave Xury is worth mentioning in connection with capitalism. Despite his claims of abhorring capitalistic bourgeois, Crusoe treats every resource in exactly the manner a capitalist would. Xury is a brave and loyal slave, yet Crusoe sells him to another trader as soon as an opportunity arises. He doesn't dwell on relationships which indicate that Xury was simply seen as a commodity and not real human being. While we agree that Crusoe was reluctant to sell Xury and that latter had agreed to the terms determined by the Portuguese trader, yet the fact remains that Crusoe did not crave human company at all. Aristotle had once said that a man who doesn't require company and is self-sufficient for himself is either a beast or a god. In this novel, we notice that Crusoe was behaving more like a capitalist beast when he shuns all company and still considers himself happy."