Chapters 26-33

Discussion

chapter 26 - the secret of primitive accumulation

- capitalist production presupposes the pre-existence of considerable masses of capital in the hands of some, and only labour power in the hands of the producers - this accumulation must have occurred prior to capitalism being established.

- the historical process of primitive accumulation is that of divorcing the producer from the means of production, emancipation from serfdom on the one hand and expropriation of the labourer on the other to create owners of money and "free" labourers.

chapter 27 - expropriation of the agricultural population from the land

- taking england as the prime example, we have peasants and labourers starting with not only a small piece of land, but also the commons. feudal retainers we the first to be thrown on the labour market as proletarians, followed by peasants driven from the land and commons being seized (largely illegally), fuelled by rise in price in wool, so the nobility could make lots of money from sheep. legislation tried to prevent this (so that the country still had good infantry).

- the reformation with the seizing of church lands gave this a huge impulse to the process and removed the religious bulwark of traditional conditions of landed property.

- feudal obligations of landowners to the state were replaced with taxes on the peasantry and modern property rights, huge amounts of state land were seized and eventually the seizing of commons was done by decree as well as force. independent yeomen were replaced with servile tenants and the commons were added to large farms.

- the highland clearances the largest scale of this process, the former heads of clans driving their clansmen off the land to replace them with first sheep, then these with deer.

chapter 28 - legislation against the expropriated

- the masses of newly "freed" proletarians were too numerous to be absorbed by manufacture, and became paupers and vagabonds. violent legislation was then enacted against them, beating them into submissive proletarians, selling their labour submissively and accepting their situation.

- legislation was also brought in to keep wages down, lengthen the working day and prevent workers' organisation, as to begin with the variable part of capital was comparatively large, and so the demand for labour grew faster than labouring population. the anti-organisation laws were only withdrawn after the pressure of the mass of the working class.

chapter 29 - genesis of the capitalist farmer

- the above only explains the creation of the "free" labourer - where did the possessor of money come from? some serfs, such as bailiffs, when freed became farmers provided with seed and implements by the landlord and employing wage labour, dividing profits with the landlord. this situation changed to the farmer paying rent and advancing his own capital.

- leases were long (99 years) so they paid the same even as money depreciated in value and the value of the product of the land grew.

chapter 30 - reaction of the agricultural revolution on industrial capital

- first, the new proletarians were not in the guilds, so could be more freely exploited.

- improvements in agriculture meant that more was being produced by fewer people, so large amounts of means of subsistence were "set free" and turned into the material element of variable capital with the "freed" labourer must buy back with his wage (where previously he would have grown it himself.

- similarly raw material that would have been used by individual peasants and artisans was now more plentiful and became the material element of constant capital - turning from means of independent existence for the weavers to means of command and sucking of unpaid labour.

- all this was the creation of the home market - what was previously sold to the peasant, the farmer now sold to the manufacturer, and what the peasant formerly consumed himself the manufacturer now sold to the country.

- as formerly discussed, manufacture had its base in handicrafts and domestic industry, so these kept re-emerging in one place as they were suppressed in another, until modern industry wiped them out and completed the conquest of the home market.

chapter 31 - genesis of the industrial capitalist

- some small guild masters, independent artisans, even wage labourers became small capitalists.

- however, the middle ages gave us 2 types of developed capital: usury and merchant. these were at first prevented from becoming industrial capital in the country by feudal constitution and in the towns by the guilds, until these were dissolved. so the set up at sea ports and inland points beyond their control.

- colonisation of the americas, asia and africa was the true dawn of the era of capitalist production, as it formed the principal form of primitive accumulation, followed by the commercial wars of the european nations.

- colonies, national debt, modern taxation and protectionism were all methods that employed the power of the state to hasten the transition to the capitalist mode of production.

- loot brought home from the colonies turned into capital. trade ripened and colonies became markets for manufacture, with accelerated accumulation thanks to the monopoly of trade.

- national debt - alienation of the state - the system of public credit, turned money into capital instantly with little risk, enriching middlemen, creating joint-stock companies, stock exchange gambling and the bankocracy. this further gave rise to the system of international credit, concealing the origin of primitive accumulation (one nation could go loot the colonies the lend the money to another with no access to the colonies).

- to pay these debts, the state had to increase taxation, leading to the need for more loans for new expenses. these were raised on the necessary means of subsistence, raising prices and worsening the conditions of the workers and aiding the forcible expropriation of the lower-middle class.

- protectionism destroyed independent labourers and industry in dependent states (such as ireland).

- child labour from stolen children was used extensively in the establishment of manufacture, as was primitive accumulation via the slave trade - wage slavery built on slavery proper.

chapter 32 - historical tendency of capitalist accumulation

- small individual proprietors flourished for a while, but production could only be primitive as no cooperation, and brought new material agencies into play which eventually destroyed it.

- as soon as labourers turned into proletarians and means of production turned into capital, capital turns from the expropriation of the labourer working for himself to the expropriation of other capitalists. with this, a socialised labour process develops, entangling everyone in the world market, developing the international character of the capitalist regime.

- with it, the revolt of the working class grows, organised and united by the capitalist mode of production. the monopoly of capital becomes a fetter on the mode of production.

- capitalist mode of appropriation the result of the capitalist mode of production produces capitalist private property, the negation of individual private property (founded on the labour of the proprietor). but capitalist production begets its own negation - the negation of negation (i'm guessed the original would being used here is everyone's favourite german word, aufheben!). this does not re-establish private property of the producer, but individual property based on the acquisitions of the capitalist era, i.e. cooperation and possession in common of land and means of production. the first transition was necessarily very violent as it was the expropriation of the masses by the few, the second transition must be less so as it is the expropriation of the few by the masses.

chapter 33 - the modern theory of colonisation

- whilst at home the laws of individual laws of private property were applied to its antithesis, capitalist private property, in the colonies the former was actively suppressed to create the latter.

- where protectionism strove to create capitalists, colonisation strove to create wage workers, as money, means of production etc. are not capital without the labourer - capital is a social relation.

- it was found that in the colonies there were not enough wage labourers as land was so cheap imported labourers could soon run off and work for themselves, or even become competitors to their former employers, they did not agree to a social contract of being exploited. in other words, the law of supply and demand of labour was not working as capital liked, so they tried to enforce it by making land prohibitively expensive, so that any labourer managing to buy land would pay for the importing of his replacement.

- all this achieved was diverting emigration, but soon the colonies were saturated, hastened by large land give-aways to capitalists and aristocrats in some places, speculative companies for railways, mines, etc. in others, accompanied by raising of taxes after american civil war.

- all this lead to the discovery that the capitalist mode of production has as its fundamental condition the annihilation of self-earned private property and the expropriation of the labourer.