Re: Forwarded from Abu Hartel (origins of capitalism)

[Nicholas Siemensma <nsiemensma@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Abu Hartel wrote: 

> Someone argued that there has to be a purely
> economic relationship 
> between the means of production and the worker. I
> don't know what this 
> means. Marx argues that in early capitalism the
> state or coercion played a 
> crucial role in securing the proletariat. 

Michael Perelman's book _Invention of Capitalism: the
Secret History of Primitive Accumulation_ gives a
particularly good account of this naked compulsion
behind the invisible hand.  

> Another person argued the development of
> capitalism is only possible 
> after a capitalist revolution in agriculture. But
> again Marx argues the 
> opposite in part VIII. 

Marx didn't have the benefit of all the scholarship we
do, and often what he though went on did not actually
occur, but the more deeply you read and the more
people write about this period intending to inter old
Karl, Marx finds himself and the burden of his work
vindicated.  A prime example is the work of Gregory
Clark which I briefly discussed in my previous post.

Nick

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