On 5/8/21 12:49 AM, Michael Meeropol wrote:
Hi All ---- if we start with Marxist concepts then we have to ask
ourselves, is chattel slavery American style CAPITALIST (there seems
to be a lot of folks who [implicitly if not explicitly] believe this)
-- is it PRE-CAPITALIST [the position of Eugene Genovese -- and others
of course} -- or is it some SUI GENERIS Mode of Production?
I think the most crucial point Marx made about the distinction between
capitalism and feudalism and what he called an Einfache
Warenproduktion -- which I think translates as sole proprietorship, a
workers who owns "his" [in those days mostly] means of production ---
is that under capitalism the laborer is "free" --- free to work for a
capitalist or STARVE. Serfs are not free, slaves are not free --- and
in fact, slaves rarely starved (though they had lousy diets. -- it was
in the interest of the slave-holders to keep their slaves alives and
productive = fed) while serfs starved when everyone else starved,
during famines.
THerefore, American chattel slavery AIN'T Capitalism --
Most of this can be made clearer by distinguishing between capitalism as
a mode of production and as a system. In my view, it is a system that in
its early stages incorporates many forms of exploitation having little
to do with the textile mills of the late 18th century. In fact, Marx
considered them as the genesis of the industrial capitalist:
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.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#8416): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8416
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82563203/21656
-=-=-
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.
#4 Do not exceed five posts a day.
-=-=-
Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy
[arch...@mail-archive.com]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
