RE: Marx and the capitalist world economy

Elson Boles Wrote:

> I think this oversimplifies Marx's views.  Certainly he noted that 
>slavery 
> was necessary for the modern factory.  But he doesn't seem to have argued 
> that modern slavery is a form of capitalist production.  This is where 
>Marx 
> did not push the analysis of historical capitalism as far as 
> world-systemists have.

This whole discussion has oversimplified Marx's views on the origins 
of capitalism. Textual evidence can certainly be adduced showing 
that, for Marx, gains from slave-based agriculture and colonial trade 
were an important part of the process of primitive accumulation. But 
so can other textual evidence be found on 1) the so-called 'peasant 
road' to capitalism, involving peasant differentiation and the rise 
of the yeomen (as Rodney Hilton has insisted); 2) the growth of 
merchant capital and the putting out system (as Dobb and others have 
emphasized; 3) the enclosure movement led by landowners (as Brenner 
has argued). *Capital* has extensive sections, if not full chapters, 
on these other aspects of  primitive accumulation.