The non-history of capitalism

Bibliographic Data

ID12673294
AuthorsEllen Meiksins Wood (corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume1
Issue1
Pages5-21
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Materialism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-4466 • E-ISSN: 1569-206X
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156920697100414087
OpenAlexW2076019617
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Since historians first began explaining the emergence of capitalism, there has scarcely existed an explanation that did not begin by assuming the very thing that needed to be explained. Almost without exception, accounts of the origin of capitalism have been fundamentally circular: they have assumed the prior existence of capitalism in order to explain its coming into being. My intention here is to sketch a kind of potted history of these question — begging explanations and to consider their implications. I shall start with what has been called the ‘commercialisation model’, which has its origins in classical political economy and Enlightenment conceptions of progress. This model is arguably still the dominant one, even among its harshest critics, including both the demographic explanations that claim to have displaced the commercialisation model, and also most Marxist accounts, from the transition debate which started in the ‘50s until today. But there does now exist an important alternative account, and I shall end by considering that too

Begging · Capitalism · Economics · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Marxist philosophy · Neoclassical economics · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sketch · Social science · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub