A Companion to Marx’s Capital
tags
: [[capitalism]] [[marxism]] [[harvey]] [[Marx]]
source
: cite:harveycompanion2018
I’ve tried to omit notes on Harvey summarizing Marx. That should be left to the [[Capital Vol. 1]] notes.
Chapter 11: The Secret of Primitive Accumulation
- Primitive accumulation is about the origins of wage labor
- Competition always tends to produce centralization
- The power of Marx’s argument is that he, essentially, buried the classical political economists with their own words
- note to self: if there is any use in the term [[neoliberalism]] it’s that it describes an economic period of stopping the declining rate of profit. This tendency is only an acceleration of the tendencies we see in Capital
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the ideological aspects of liberalism; the freedom, individualism, the “market for the benefit of all” stuff is all shown to be hollow in Marx
- ironically, it’s shown to be hollow because he shows that capitalism wasn’t born out of some fair and equal world, but of enslavement, theft, violence, etc.
- the central question of part 8 is how labor became a commodity (at least in England)
- Harvey recommends “The Invention of Capitalism”
Primitive Accumulation
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The release of the retainers allowed for money power to begin to be exercised
- Harvey says that in the Grundrisse that Marx says that money dissolved the traditional community in favor of one in which money becomes the community (i.e. a market?)
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The accumulation of money power is curbed by the usage of money in this manner, for two reasons (the following are quotes):
- The state depends on and thereby becomes vulnerable to money power
- Money power can be created an mobilized in ways that state legislation has difficulty stopping
- The rise of the different capitalists allows them to bend the state to their collective will
- Harvey remarks that capitalism developed on “greenfield sites.” Is this where the term comes from?
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“Greenfield sites” are areas where capitalism was able to develop away from guilds, laws, local merchants, i.e. anyone who could stop you.
- Could [[colonialism]] have been a large-scale “greenfield site” operation?
- Harvey kind of insinuates that the book should have ended at 32, and that 32 ends with a revolutionary call to action that is deflated by chapter 33
- Hegel theorized that societies are driven to colonialization as a way to return to the pastoral life of peasantry
Commentary
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Modern scholarship, according to Harvey, shows that Marx’s account of primitive accumulation is a bit exaggerated, though not entirely wrong
- For example, there are instances where peasants weren’t forced off the land so much as they were goaded peacefully
- Despite this, Marx’s analysis is significant and groundbreaking for its time
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Harvey brings up that [[Rosa Luxemburg]] believes it wrong that there are two separate forms of exploitation: the commodity market and the relations between capitalism and the non-capitalist modes of production
- Harvey says that she believes that primitive accumulation wasn’t merely capitalism’s original sin: it is also its ongoing sin. Capitalism would have long ago been extinguished had it not constantly found fresh rounds of primitive accumulation
- One such way being [[imperialism]]
- Harvey also suggests (that Luxemburg would probably suggest) that [[China]]’s own opening up and agricultural revolution have been yet another instance of primitive accumulation
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The invention of personal finance could also be seen as a form of primitive accumulation
- I don’t know if I agree with this, but credit does open up fresh avenues of capital extraction
- Harvey argues that neoliberalism is a sort of primitive accumulation, though I would probably not agree with him on that
Reflections and Prognoses