Just a note on the term "primitive accumulation". As a German-language
speaker I would like to point out that indeed the category "primitive
accumulation" has always been a wrong translation. The original
formulation of Marx and Engels is (in German) "ursprüngliche
Akkumulation". The word "ursprünglich" comes from "Ursprung" which means
"origin". Hence the the correct translation is "original accumulation".
I noted already in the past that the English translations of the
classics (at least of Marx, Engels and Lenin) contain various mistakes.
The reason is that for a long time there were not so many good English
translators as Marxism was pretty weak in the Anglo-Saxon world (and the
academic world had no interest in such work). There exist also many
German-language translations of works of Soviet Marxists in the 1920s
but not in English.
Of course things have changed in the past decades with the rise of
globalization and the U.S. hegemony. This period however is also coming
to an end now. But at least for now, English has become the lingua
franca even in the Marxist world (a fact strongly deplored or even not
recognized by the French).
Am 11.01.2021 um 06:21 schrieb Michael Meeropol:
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]
<mailto:[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
<https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm>
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