On 4/26/07, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Jim Devine wrote:
>I think the passage from Engels reflects the fact that he and Marx
>learned their economic history at first from Hegel.
But the writings of Marx and Engels are shot through with
formulations that go against the grain of the Brenner thesis. Here's another:
"The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh
ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese
markets, the colonisation of America, trade with the colonies, the
increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave
to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before
known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering
feudal society, a rapid development."
--Communist Manifesto
I guess that Marx and Engels were disoriented from reading Henri
Pirenne or something.
it's more likely that Henri read some of Karl and Fred's works. But,
as I said before, both Marx and Engels developed their knowledge of
economic history, especially after the 1840s were over and they had
more time for research. Though I'm no fan of the idea of an
"epistemological break" in Marx's ideas, his views of economic history
are more developed in his CAPITAL than in his and Fred's Manifesto.
--
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your
own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
