Primitive accumulation

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In Marxist theory, primitive accumulation is the process by which precapitalist modes of production, such as feudalism and subsistence agriculture, are transformed into the capitalist mode of production. The concept was first articulated in its modern form by Karl Marx in chapter 26 of the first volume of Das Kapital. Marx described primitive accumulation as the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production. For Marx, this was not a peaceful transition but a violent, brutal, and coercive expropriation of the direct producers—the peasantry and artisans—from their means of livelihood. At its core, the process was a transformation in social property relations that established the preconditions for capitalism, particularly in the English countryside and later globally through colonialism and national competition. Marx's theory was a critique of the origin stories presented by classical political economists like Adam Smith, who depicted the rise of capitalism as a...

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