From: Louis Proyect I hold no position of exclusivity. This is what I believe:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm ^^^^^^^ If you look in the archives, you'll see I referred to this section of _Capital_ numerous times in the debates on this question here and elsewhere over the years. I finally seem to have gotten at least Lou's attention. The Chapter is entitled "The Genesis of the _Industrial_ Capitalist", industry being of a sort of central essence of capitalism in most people's thinking. Industrial manufacturing, factories are the capitalist type, not farming and agriculture, though of course capitalism has capitalist farming and agriculture. Marx uses the modifier "industrial" to modify capitalist and refers to the industrial capitalist's genesis in the section where he discusses the colonies and slavery, i.e. not the English countryside. The "countryside" he refers to in the genesis of the _industrial_ capitalist is in the colonies, not the English countryside. This implies he thinks colonialism and slavery were critical in the genesis of the _industrial_ capitalist, i.e. industrial, not rural, capitalism. Put it another way, it is in the Chapter titled "Genesis of the _Industrial_ Capitalist" (emphasis added -CB), that Marx calls slavery and colonialism the chief momenta of the primitive accumulation. The discussion of removal of English peasants from the land is more in the Chapter titled "Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer" and preceding Chapters. The Industrial Capitalist is more the typical capitalist type in the riproaring history of capitalism than is the Capitalist Farmer. In the Chapter on the Industrial Capitalist , Marx gives prominence to colonialism and slavery as the causal prime movers ("chief momenta"). Charles ^^^^^ From: Louis Proyect I hold no position of exclusivity. This is what I believe: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm The money capital formed by means of usury and commerce was prevented from turning into industrial capital, in the country by the feudal constitution, in the towns by the guild organisation. These fetters vanished with the dissolution of feudal society, with the expropriation and partial eviction of the country population. The new manufactures were established at Weapons, or at inland points beyond the control of the old municipalities and their guilds. Hence in England an embittered struggle of the corporate towns against these new industrial nurseries. 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.
