What Is Primitive Accumulation and How Is It Relevant in the Study

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The Answer is In Capital, Marx described how he saw the transition to the capitalist mode of production as having emerged through a process he called primitive accumulation. His account of primitive accumulation was closely linked to his understanding of capitalism, which he saw as historically distinct: capitalists owned the means of production, whereas workers had to sell their labour to survive because they had no other means (e.g., land) of subsistence. This state of affairs, in which capitalists owned all the means of production and workers none, had not come about naturally. Rather, it was a result of a process of primitive accumulation that entailed conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, briefly force. This resonates with the literature on conflict and development, specifically in regards to colonialism. The colonial system facilitated the accumulation of riches from Asia, Africa, and America to capitalists in Europe, Marx wrote. Here, the methods of primitive accumulation were especially brutal. The treasures captured outside Europe by undisguised looting, enslavement, and murder floated back to the mother country and were there turned into capital.

What Is Primitive Accumulation and How Is It Relevant in the Study

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