I do not agree --- I believe the connotation of the English translation "primitive" accumulation is actually ORIGINAL as in PRIOR to the establishment of capitalism --- So yes, slavery, mercantile exploitation, conquest, etc. were essential to the ORIGINS of capitalism they are NOT part of the dynamic of capitalism once it gets started --- that is why Marx and Engels actually thought American slavery was a DRAG on capitalist development and because they believed it was necessary for capitalism to fulfill its "historic mission" to make POSSIBLE the abolition of scarcity (too optimistic on that front for sure!) that would open the door to first socialism and then (their version of) communism the victory of the North in the Civil War to destroy American slavery was a progressive step ---
I have to admit, I am in the "older school" which sees the American slave south as a different mode of production from the emerging capitalist mode in the North --- but I know that is now a contested argument what with the more recent scholarship .... On Sun, Jan 10, 2021 at 3:22 PM Charles Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > Of course Karl Marx held that slavery and colonialism were integral to > capitalism from its origin . > ME: THe following quote clearly shows that these are all PRIOR to the establishment of capitalism as a viable growing and (at least at that time) successful economic system .... check out the last two sentences below ... > > “ The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, > enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the > beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of > Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised > the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic > proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation. On their heels > treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a > theatre. It begins with the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain, assumes > giant dimensions in England’s Anti-Jacobin War, and is still going on in > the opium wars against China, &c. > > The different momenta of primitive accumulation distribute themselves now, > more or less in chronological order, particularly over Spain, Portugal, > Holland, France, and England. In England at the end of the 17th century, > they arrive at a systematical combination, embracing the colonies, the > national debt, the modern mode of taxation, and the protectionist system. > These methods depend in part on brute force, *e.g.,* the colonial system. > But, they all employ the power of the State, the concentrated and organised > force of society, to hasten, hot-house fashion, the process of > transformation of the feudal mode of production into the capitalist mode, > and to shorten the transition. Force is the midwife of every old society > pregnant with a new one. It is itself an economic power.” > > > https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm > > > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#5406): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/5406 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79572310/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
