It was written at a time when Britain was beginning to expand its colonial sights, and it would shortly become the richest and most powerful country on earth, thanks to its imperial expeditions in the Caribbean, Africa, and parts of Asia, notably India.Ĭrusoe embodies this pioneering mercantile spirit: he is obsessed with money (he even picks up coins on his island and keeps them, even though he cannot spend them), and takes great pleasure in the physical objects, such as the guns and powder, which he rescues from the wreck. This tells us a great deal about Robinson Crusoe the man but also Robinson Crusoe the novel. As Gilbert Phelps observes (in his now rather outdated but still brilliantly readable Introduction to Fifty British Novels, 1600-1900 (Reader’s Guides) ), the moment in the novel when Robinson Crusoe shows the most emotion is probably when he’s back in England and discovers how rich his plantations have made him. And, of course, the very reason Robinson Crusoe ends up shipwrecked is because he’s making a business trip, to purchase slaves.
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