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from Part I - The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
The accumulation of capital, Marx argues, presupposes surplus value. We cannot accumulate unless we have something to accumulate with and this something must evidently be over and above (i.e. surplus to) what is necessary simply to reproduce the prevailing process of production on the same unchanging scale. However, the existence of surplus value presupposes the existence of capital, and the existence of capital presupposes accumulation. The whole thing, Marx argues, seems to turn in a vicious circle when viewed from the point of view of an already established capitalist mode of production (CMP) out of which we can only get by supposing some form of pre-capitalist or primitive accumulation (‘previous accumulation’ in Adam Smith's terminology), which takes place before the development of the CMP proper. As Marx says on this point:
This primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology. Adam bit the apple, and thereupon sin fell on the human race. Its origin is supposed to be explained when it is told as an anecdote of the past. In times long gone by there were two sorts of people; one, the diligent, intelligent, and, above all, frugal elite; the other, lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living.
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