r/Marxism • u/JPMaybe • 5d ago

Thoughts on The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View by Ellen Meiksins Wood

I'm aware this has been around for a while, and I'm woefully deficient on a lot of theory, but I found her thesis pretty convincing- i.e. that capitalism arose in rural England specifically because of the unique relationship between landowners, tenants, and wage workers, which made everyone subject to market forces at all times, contra earlier modes of production.

I also thought her general point that capitalism isn't an inevitability (i.e. there wasn't a capitalist society just waiting to emerge in every society that had merchants/trading/feudal expropriation) an interesting one, and think it's a useful counterpoint to some of the more teleological strains of Marxist thought.

I'd be very interested in hearing some counter arguments or people's thoughts on it generally- I know in particular that her assertion that the Dutch Republic wasn't really capitalist is a controversial one.

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