We have no way of saying how much of capitalist accumulation is due to the primitive accumulation that occurred around the globe. Certainly it is important, but other societies dispossess peoples and never developed full-blown capitalism. Marx put primitive accumulation in the back of volume 1 because he wanted to emphasize that the crux of capitalism was the "fair" exploitation by way of markets. This is not to deny the importance of primitive accumulation. Slaves stolen from Africa and put to work growing cotton were the mainstay of the British economy and the source of much of Marx's support from Engels, yet Marx emphasized the role of the workers in the British textile industry. Unlike Engels, he did not pay much attention to the fact that many of the workers came because of dispossession in Ireland.
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
