Notes on Capital: Primitive Accumulation, State, and the World Market
Overview and Context
The course/lecture centers on Marx’s Capital, Volume I, as a foundational bedrock for social theory and critique. It is both a standard reference and a thorn for many sociological approaches.
Volume II and III were compiled by Friedrich Engels after Marx’s death and address certification, distribution, profit, and finance; they extend the analysis beyond Volume I.
The lecturer emphasizes that studying Capital’s parts into modern contexts helps critique or extend Marx’s framework for contemporary business analysis and historical analysis.
While Volume I focuses on private firms and the dynamics of capital accumulation, there’s an ongoing invitation to connect to the state, the world market, and global relations, which become more central in Luxemburg, Du Bois, Rodney, and others.
The course anticipates expanding topics next week: the world market, colonies, slavery, and their roles in capital accumulation; and later readings by Luxemburg and others to stress the global dimension.
The end of the course’s Marxian arc gestures toward imperialism and colonial accumulation, while stressing that capital is a social relation mediated by things, not a simple thing in itself.
Key Concepts and Terminology (Marxian foundations echoed in the lecture)
Capital as a social relation mediated through things, not a static object. Not merely machinery but a social arrangement.
Value composition: total social labor embedded in commodities; the value form arises from social relations of production.
Constant capital (C): the part of capital invested in means of production (machinery, raw materials) that does not directly add new value through its own labor.
Variable capital (V): the labor-power purchased by capital; this is the input that creates new value.
Surplus value (S): value produced by labor power beyond its own cost, appropriated by capitalists.
Total value of a produced commodity:
ext{Value} = C + V + SRate of surplus value (exploitation rate):
s' = \frac{S}{V}Rate of profit (on the whole capital):
r = \frac{S}{C + V} = \frac{S}{K}Organic composition of capital (OC): the ratio of constant capital to variable capital, i.e.
OC = \frac{C}{V}Relative surplus population: the portion of the population that becomes surplus relative to the demand for labor as capital intensifies.
Primitive (originary) accumulation: the historical process by which capital relations are created through force, expropriation, and the separation of workers from the means of subsistence.
Double freedom (Marx’s concept): free from the land (peasant/serf no longer tied to feudal obligations) but simultaneously free from owning the means of production, thereby compelled to sell labor power in the wage system.
Commons vs public vs private: commons are managed by users; public is managed by the state; private is owned by individuals or private entities.
Silent compulsion of economic relations: the non-coercive (in appearance) forces of market relations that compel workers to sell labor power in a capitalist system.
Relative vs absolute surplus value: absolute surplus value is expanded by lengthening the working day; relative surplus value is expanded by increasing productivity (more output per unit of labor).
Primitive Accumulation: What it is and why it matters
Primitive accumulation denotes the prehistory of capital where social relations are transformed by violence and coercion, not by natural market processes.
Marx emphasizes that the encounter between the owners of money and sellers of labor was forced, not an inevitable outcome of market dynamics.
The process is not simply about labor becoming free from land; it also involves the separation of workers from the means of subsistence and production, creating a wage-labor regime.
The double freedom paradox: peasants/serfs are freed from feudal obligations and from possession of the means of production, yet they are left without a subsistence base and without direct access to productive land, forcing them to sell their labor power to survive.
Expropriation is the term Marx uses to describe the divorce of the producer from the means of survival, which then expands as capital accumulation proceeds.
The process is not linear or universal across space; it unfolds differently in different regions but tends to reproduce separation between workers and the conditions for realization of labor on an extended scale as capital grows.
England as the illustrative case of expropriation and state power
The lecture anchors primitive accumulation in England, the most advanced capitalist society of Marx’s time, while acknowledging a global market and colonial ties.
Enclosures (the enclosure movement) moved common lands into private property, transforming peasant livelihoods into wage labor opportunities:
An example referenced: by 1825, land once used by 15,000 Gaels in Scotland (the Gaelic commons) was converted into private sheep grazing for 131,000 sheep (illustrative of enclosure’s scale).
This shift linked mechanization and agricultural modernization to the creation of a surplus labor supply for urban industry.
The concept of the commons vs the public is crucial: the commons are user-managed spaces, while the public is state-managed; encroachment into the commons supports accumulation by privatizing reproduction and production.
The enclosures coincide with urbanization and industrialization, serving a dual function: speeding agricultural productivity and freeing labor for factory work.
The transition is embedded in a broader social process of expropriation that is not purely economic but political and legal.
The state, coercion, and the legislation of labor (the “bloody legislation against bondage”)
Early legal regime: coercive state power enforces labor discipline and enforces wage labor through brutal sanctions.
Examples of legislation and state practice:
1547 under Edward VI: a person who refuses to work can be condemned as an idle person and enslaved by those who claim them.
1572 under Elizabeth I: unlicensed beggars can be executed.
Under James I: those who refuse to work can be whipped, publicly flogged, and branded.
The shift from overt coercion to a formal regime of wages involves a transition from force to the silent compulsion of economic relations; the state plays a central role in shaping wage laws and labor discipline.
The abolition of the 1825 law against workers’ combinations marks a turning point where organized labor gains a foothold, but even then the state and capital still regulate wages and maintain dependence on wages for subsistence.
Note on interpretation: Marx’s discussion links the state not as a friend of the working class but as a potential tool of capitalist social order, sometimes described (critiqually) as a trade union of the capitalist class.
Mechanization, agriculture, and the expansion of capital
Mechanization of farming and the growth of new means of production contribute to both increased output and the displacement of workers from traditional rural livelihoods.
The lecturer emphasizes a double function: mechanization increases productivity while simultaneously creating more wage-laborers who must purchase labor power to survive.
The agricultural surplus labor relationship feeds into urban factory labor; the expansion of constant capital (machinery) grows, while labor (variable capital) becomes relatively scarce, pushing toward relative surplus populations.
The paradox: mechanization is not inherently capitalist; rather, it becomes capitalist through social relations and property regimes that convert the products of labor into private profit.
The structure of capital and the logic of valorization
The transformation of land, wood, and other resources into capital is a matter of social relation, not merely the possession of resources.
Marx’s phrase that “soil is incorporated into capital” points to the way natural resources become instruments of value production through social relations and property forms.
The process includes the conversion of earlier forms of production (like spinning and weaving within cottage industry) into capitalist production through ownership, wage relations, and the capitalization of surplus produced by labor.
In the agricultural population, the shift to mechanized production can yield a surplus, but under capitalism this surplus is appropriated by capital rather than being distributed among workers themselves.
The relationship between productivity gains and labor demand is central: as OC rises (more constant capital per unit of labor), fewer workers are needed for the same output, which can compress wage-driven demand for labor and contribute to unemployment or underemployment.
The “bloody legislation” vs “silent compulsion” as stages of accumulation
Stage 1 (force): The early formation of the working class is achieved through explicit coercion, violence, and state power to discipline and convert populations into wage laborers.
Stage 2 (silent compulsion): As capitalist relations take root, the necessity to work becomes a perceived natural law; labor becomes something the working class must do to survive, even without explicit coercion.
This bifurcation is introduced as a theoretical device to understand the transition from force-led expropriation to a mature capitalist social order in which labor is largely self-regulated by market forces.
The lecture notes that the line between “pre-capitalist” and “capitalist” forms remains porous; slavery and non-wage forms of exploitation can coexist with wage labor in the modern world, challenging a simple phase distinction.
The world market, colonization, and the limits of Marx’s scope (and the bridge to Luxemburg, Du Bois, Rodney)
Marx gestures toward a world market and positions colonies, slavery (chattel slavery in the Americas), and gold mining as core elements of primitive accumulation, but he does not fully integrate these into a single global model within Capital I.
Luxemburg’s critique emphasizes the necessity of a global market with noncapitalist regions for capital accumulation to function as Marx describes it; this expands the framework beyond Europe to a global scale.
Rodeny and Du Bois extend the discussion by examining slavery in the Americas, colonization in Africa, and the global economic system, asking how these phenomena relate to the European-dominated capital system.
The lecturer stresses that while these global processes are crucial, Marx’s own text foregrounds a European-centered analysis, with an invitation to radicalize or supplement it with a global lens.
The postscript on colonization in Capital: coloniization serves as a “safety valve” for the capitalist class to manage domestic crisis by exporting labor problems abroad (e.g., settlers, land acquisition) and providing new sites for capital revenue.
The “blood of children” and similar brutal links to capital accumulation are used to illustrate the extreme costs of accumulation in the early stages and to highlight ethical and political implications.
The end of Capital I: definition, hope, and the horizon beyond the text
The catalyst definition for capital appears earlier in the book: capital is not a thing but a social relation mediated by things; this ties to the commodity form and commodity fetishism themes discussed elsewhere in Marx.
The final sections offer a mixed set of reflections: a cautious optimism that the expropriated may eventually be expropriated of capital’s dominion, and a recognition that the factory system concentrates workers, which could spur collective revolt or social transformation.
The concluding reflections anticipate a future beyond capitalism but refrain from prescribing a specific political program; instead, they emphasize the analytical project of dissecting capitalism as a system of social relations.
The last portion introduces a modern theory of colonization and hints at the need to analyze colonization as part of the capitalist world-system, not as a pre-capitalist stage that has fully ended.
Examples, metaphors, and illustrative scenes used in the lecture
Enclosures in England and the private conversion of common lands into private sheep ranching, illustrating the material basis of capital accumulation.
A clip from the 1938 film Adventures of Robin Hood used to portray the era of enclosures and land privatization (historical imagination rather than a direct source for data).
A film clip from The Young Karl Marx (2017) illustrating the gathering of fallen wood by Prussian peasants as a prelude to proletarianization.
The discussion of deer in Scotland as a critique of aristocratic/landowner protections contrasted with the precarious conditions of common people.
Questions, debates, and connections to broader readings
What is the price of land? Is land value determined by dead labor embedded in it, proximity to transport, or social labor relations (rental costs, colonization, etc.)? The lecturer points to Volume III for a deeper treatment of rent and land costs.
How do migrant workers fit into the surplus population and labor reserve? Marx’s framework emphasizes rural-to-urban migration and the global circulation of labor; later scholars expand this to include transnational migration and global supply chains.
How do women and children fit into the capitalist labor regime? Marx critiques child labor and recognizes a gendered division of labor, but his treatment of domestic labor and gender relations is not fully de-naturalized; later writers (e.g., Dalla Costa) challenge and extend it.
The state’s role as both an enforcer of labor discipline and a potential mediator (e.g., maximum wage laws, abolition of combination laws) is complex; Marx is skeptical of statist solutions, yet history shows evolving forms of labor regulation.
How do slavery and colonization intersect with capitalism? Marx hints at their importance but leaves many questions for a global reading; Luxemburg and Rodney push toward a broader, world-system analysis.
Reflections for exam-ready understanding
Primitive accumulation is not a pleasant backstory; it is the violent, legal, and social process that makes wage labor possible by separating people from the means of subsistence.
The double freedom shows that liberation from the land does not equate to freedom from exploitation; instead, it creates a condition where labor power must be purchased and reproduced within capitalist relations.
The transition from force to silent compulsion demonstrates how economic relations can achieve a coercive effect without overt violence, shaping labor discipline and class structure over time.
The enclosure movement is a concrete historical example linking legal frameworks, property relations, environmental change, and labor market formation.
Capital should be understood as a social relation, not a mere object; its value formation, exploitation, and accumulation occur within social and political frameworks, including the state and global processes.
The global dimension (colonialism, slavery, world market) is essential for understanding capital’s full logic; future readings (Luxemburg, Du Bois, Rodney) push beyond a Eurocentric narrative to a global capitalist world-system.
Quick recap of dates, terms, and anchor points mentioned in the lecture
Enclosures and private property in England (late medieval to 19th century) — key to primitive accumulation.
1547 Edward VI law: compulsory labor under threat of slavery for idleness.
1572 Elizabeth I: execution for unlicensed beggars.
1825: abolition of the law against workers’ combinations; labor organization becomes legally possible but remains contested.
The Gaelic commons in 1825: shift to private sheep grazing (illustrative statistic: 15,000 common users to 131,000 sheep).
The shift from feudal serfs to wage labor occurs within a broader historical frame of enclosure, mechanization, and urbanization.
The sections of Capital I (parts around primitive accumulation, the role of the state, the world market, and the final notes on colonization) are set up for expansion in later readings.
Practical implications for study and exam preparation
Be able to explain primitive accumulation as a historical process, not a myth of natural economic development.
articulate the distinction between the commons and public/private property regimes and how enclosure changes reproductive access to resources.
Explain the two modes of labor discipline (force vs silent compulsion) and how they map onto stages of capitalist development.
Connect the mechanization and agricultural changes to the rise of wage labor and to the concept of the organic composition of capital.
Understand capital as a social relation mediated by private property and the wage system, rather than as a mere collection of machines or firms.
Prepare to discuss how a global frame (Luxemburg, Rodney, Du Bois) challenges or extends Marx’s original model, and what a world-market perspective adds to the analysis of colonization and slavery in relation to capital accumulation.