# A Companion to Marx's Capital tags : [[capitalism]] [[marxism]] [[harvey]] [[Marx]] source : harvey_companion_2018 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_ - 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 - 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?) - The accumulation of money power is curbed by the usage of money in this manner, for two reasons (the following are quotes): 1. The state depends on and thereby becomes vulnerable to money power 2. 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? - “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 - 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 - 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 - 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