Karl Marx basis much of his theory of Marxism and capital on the critiques of other theorists and their assumptions. A famous example is Marx’s critique of Adam Smith regarding “primitive” or primary accumulation. Pearleman defines the concept of primitive accumulation as the separating of the people from their means of providing for themselves. He goes further to state that primitive accumulation provided a basis for capitalist development. It firstly severed the ability of the people to provide for themselves, and secondly, established a system of stern measures required to keep people from finding alternative survival strategies outside the system of wage labour. This essay serves to first establish the principles in which Adam Smith bases
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Smith asserts that primitive accumulation is largely historical. He elaborates that work and trade are all self-interested desires for profit, and are all natural feature of human behaviour. We therefore have a natural tendency to trade with one another. Smith goes further to break this into three stages. David Harvey in his companion to Capital extrapolates on Smith’s argument to define the three stages of primary accumulation. The first stage, is the phase to which everyone works for themselves. They are working for their own benefit, and when you create a product, it is your own property. This is characterized by everyone working for themselves and their own benefit. The second stage is one portrayed by some people working harder, saving more, and thus having more insight. This implies that there is still a faction of society that works less, saves less, and lives in the moment rather than looking into the future. The first group will gradually acquire wealth, and the facilities for production. The second group on the contrary will never acquire such assets, and they will lose the little they once had. It is therefore the way of the world that virtue is rewarded. Smith presents the question of whether this is how capitalism accumulates the initial ‘heap’ of money. The final stage is the inevitable fact that the second group of society must work for the first group in order to maintain a living. The greater picture of these three stages of history together create the basis for Adam Smiths theory of primary
Smith asserts that primitive accumulation is largely historical. He elaborates that work and trade are all self-interested desires for profit, and are all natural feature of human behaviour. We therefore have a natural tendency to trade with one another. Smith goes further to break this into three stages. David Harvey in his companion to Capital extrapolates on Smith’s argument to define the three stages of primary accumulation. The first stage, is the phase to which everyone works for themselves. They are working for their own benefit, and when you create a product, it is your own property. This is characterized by everyone working for themselves and their own benefit. The second stage is one portrayed by some people working harder, saving more, and thus having more insight. This implies that there is still a faction of society that works less, saves less, and lives in the moment rather than looking into the future. The first group will gradually acquire wealth, and the facilities for production. The second group on the contrary will never acquire such assets, and they will lose the little they once had. It is therefore the way of the world that virtue is rewarded. Smith presents the question of whether this is how capitalism accumulates the initial ‘heap’ of money. The final stage is the inevitable fact that the second group of society must work for the first group in order to maintain a living. The greater picture of these three stages of history together create the basis for Adam Smiths theory of primary