~ ITP-C-HAPOOI-RC-B-NWLAFF-N-A-EW-O ~ In The Past – Capitalism – Has Always Pulled Out Of Its – Recurrent Crises – But – Never Without Laying A Foundation For – New – And – Even Worse – Ones

~ AAIIASIWTBOSWIDB-PL-WAOTSTL-PIEFAW-IOTGATTMOLAOLI ~ Above All It Is A System In Which The Bulk Of Society’s Work Is Done By – Propertyless Labourers – Who Are Obliged To Sell Their Labour-Power In Exchange For A Wage – In Order To Gain Access To The Means Of Life And Of Labour Itself

~ TBOOT-CS-ITPAS-EOC-TDWOSTMNOHB-SVDFAPWO-OML-A-SR-HEFAVST-BAFOHEOE-ETWMEIO-TSRIHN-A-INCWA-OHP-WNCTIREB-TEMP-A-TOI-WE ~ The Basic Objective Of The – Capitalist System – Is The Production And Self-Expansion Of Capital – This Distinctive Way Of Supplying The Material Needs Of Human Beings – So Very Different From All Preceding Ways Of – Organizing Material Life – And – Social Reproduction – Has Existed For A Very Short Time – Barely A Fraction Of Humanity’s Existence On Earth – Even Those Who Most Emphatically Insist On – The System’s Roots In Human Nature – And – Its Natural Continuity With Age-Old Human Practices – Would Not Claim That It Really Existed Before – The Early Modern Period – And – Then Only In – Western Europe

~ IMAOCAIO-TRINO-CSATBT-S-AIONTBRFIC-FIFTFOF-TBATGAM-TTFAP:TPPOLOTROAAS-STACOI:PTWR-TEOTEITSTCBN-CACS-A-TDOD-TSOC-CTTCAOHACA-EOI-A-HN-A-AHHBWBIOGTC ~ In Most Accounts Of Capitalism And Its Origin – There Really Is No Origin – Capitalism Seems Always To Be There – Somewhere – And It Only Needs To Be Released From Its Chains – For Instance From The Fetters Of Feudalism – To Be Allowed To Grow And Mature – Typically These Fetters Are Political: The Parasitic Power Of Lordship Or The Restriction Of An Autocratic State – Sometimes They Are Cultural Or Ideological: Perhaps The Wrong Religion – The Effect Of These Explanation Is To Stress The Continuity Between Non-Capitalist And Capitalist Societies – And – To Deny Or Disguise – The Specificity Of Capitalism – Central To These Conventional Accounts Of History Are Certain Assumptions – Explicit Or Implicit – About – Human Nature – And – About How Human Beings Will Behave If Only Given The Chance

~ I-CI-TMI-NCBF-B-WMNABSC-ITTDADCOTCM-INOOC-B-OTC-C-AIM-IOWOA-EI-MR-IOTGATT-MOL-TUSO-M-D-MTTDOTCM-IIO-C/A/P-M-A-I-L-P-R-NOA-ET-B-SR-IG ~ In – Capitalist Ideology – The Market Implies – Not Compulsion But Freedom – But – What May Not Always Be So Clear – Is That The Distinctive And Dominant Characteristic Of The Capitalist Market – Is Not Opportunity Or Choice – But – On The Contrary – Compulsion – All Individuals Must – In One Way Or Another – Enter Into – Market Relations – In Order To Gain Access To The – Means Of Life – This Unique System Of – Market-Dependence – Means That The Dictates Of The Capitalist Market – Its Imperatives Of – Competition / Accumulation / Profit-Maximization – And – Increasing – Labour-Productivity – Regulate – Not Only All – Economic Transactions – But – Social Relations – In General

~ C-RA-HS-SF-A-A-HR-W-EF-TNOC-WDI-S-A-TLAPHPTBIIB-LOUOTP-ATST-IROHAEFTF ~ Capitalism – Represents A – Historically Specific – Social Form – And – A – Historic Rupture – With – Earlier Forms – The – Naturalization Of Capitalism – Which Denies Its – Specificity – And – The Long And Painful Historical Processes That Brought It Into Being – Limits Our Understanding Of The Past – At The Same Time – It Restricts Our Hopes And Expectations For The Future

~ TQO-TOOC-MSA-B-IGTTHOA-DRIOC-WAD-I-AT-S-C-‘F-M’A-IBTH-ICW-D-SJ-A-ES ~ The Question Of – The Origin Of Capitalism – May Seem Arcane – But – It Goes To The Heart Of Assumptions – Deeply Rooted In Our Culture – Widespread And Dangerous – Illusions – About The – So-Called – “Free Market” – And – Its Benefits To Humanity – Its Compatibility With – Democracy – Social Justice – And – Ecological Sustainability

~ TMCWOETOOC-ITPTIDI-TNOOHPAAOATSI-WROTROEOTHIR-FFRTTMBCWIBC-TASTCEWTMWLFA-OC ~ The Most Common Way Of Explaining The Origin Of Capitalism – Is To Presuppose That Its Development Is – The Natural Outcome Of Human Practices Almost As Old As The Species Itself – Which Required Only The Removal Of External Obstacles That Hindered Its Realization – Far From Recognizing That The Market Became Capitalist When It Became Compulsory – These Accounts Suggest That Capitalism Emerged When The Market Was Liberated From Age-Old Constraints

~ T-NOTM-A-IL-INRQ ~ The – Nature Of The Market – And – Its Laws – Is Never Really Questioned

~ I-A-ES-‘E’-R-A-P-W-‘E’-O-S-I-N-E-K/C/R/P-R-THBOMDEAT-TP-‘E’-M-O-PAMG-SA-TAOSAP-O-TMOCS-THBOWOOELTTTMO-ME-IP-‘R’-A-‘R’-IG-C-W-DE-BITTDT ~ In – All – Earlier Societies – “Economic’ – Relations – And – Practices – Were – “Embedded” – Or – Submerged – In – Non-Economic – Kinship / Communal / Religious / Political – Relationships – There Have Been Other Motives Driving Economic Activity Than – The Purely – “Economic” – Motives – Of – Profit And Material Gain – Such As – The Achievement Of Status And Prestige – Or – The Maintenance Of Communal Solidarity – There Have Been Other Ways Of Organizing Economic Life Than Through The Mechanisms Of – Market Exchange – In Particular – “Reciprocity” – And – “Redistribution” – In General – Competition – Was – Deliberately Eliminated – Because It Tended To Disorganize Trade

~ T-IR-R-SI-T-PTSF ~ The – Industrial Revolution – Required – State Intervention – To – Preserve The Social Fabric

~ WCAT-CAC-AOATS-O-TOPITOBASPOG ~ We Cannot Assume That – Commerce And Capitalism – Are One And The Same – Or – That One Passed Into The Other By A Simple Process Of Growth

~ TDOFHMTOO ~ The Dissolution Of Feudalism Had More Than One Outcome

~ TDDOC-CIP-WPBM-D-A-T-STTIOC ~ The Distinctive Dynamics Of Capitalism – Come Into Play – When Producers Become Market-Dependent – And – Therefore – Subject To The Imperatives Of Competition

~ TNIO-PE-I-NCOP-A-TEOP-WIEB-SR-CBTS-WRTI-TCOTM ~ The New Ideology Of – Political Economy – Including – New Conceptions Of Property – And – The Ethic Of Profit – Was Increasingly Enforced By – State Repression – Coercion By The State – Was Required To Impose – The Coercion Of The Market

~ TDB-TMAO-A-TMAAI ~ The Difference Between – The Market As Opportunity – And – The Market As An Imperative

~ F-W-D-A-IPSDO-OOOWWC ~ Feudalism – Was – Diverse – And – It Produced Several Different Outcomes – Only One Of Which Was Capitalism

~ TCFITDOCFAOFO-CS-WTDOC-S-PR-TG-MI-A-C-‘LOM’-WITOP ~ The Critical Factor In The Divergence Of Capitalism From All Other Forms Of – Commercial Society – Was The Development Of Certain – Social Property Relationships – That Generated – Market Imperatives – And – Capitalist – “Laws Of Motion” – Which Imposed Themselves On Production

~ ELTT-SC-MOTW-W-FOMI-TDPOTE-WN-SVDFP-B-‘BCASD’ ~ Even Later Than The – Seventeenth Century – Most Of The World – Was – Free Of Market Imperatives – The Dominant Principle Of Trade Everywhere – Was Not – Surplus Value Derived From Production – But – “Buying Cheap And Selling Dear

~ C-R-NA-SEOE-O-BAE-B-ACTIT-MB-H-RAP-A-RIA-OP-O-HIWN ~ Capitalism – Required – Not A – Simple Extension Or Expansion – Of – Barter And Exchange – But – A Complete Transformation In The – Most Basic – Human – Relations And Practices – And – Rupture In Age-Old Patterns – Of – Human Interaction With Nature

~ VEICSIAC-PRTM ~ Virtually Everything In Capitalist Society Is A Commodity – Produced For The Market

~ TUSOMDHSSRACSBNOMOP:TIO:C/A/P-M-A-H-A-C-SN-T-A/SONM/III ~ This Unique System Of Market Dependence Has Specific Systemic Requirements And Compulsions Shared By No Other Mode Of Production: The Imperatives Of: Competition / Accumulation / Profit-Maximization – And – Hence – A – Constant – Systemic Need – To – Accumulate / Search Out New Markets / Impose Its Imperatives

~ EP-I-BARF-EOR ~ Enhancing Productivity – Itself – Became A Reason For – Excluding Other Rights

~ NDOCHEOWSKOVHR ~ No Development Of Capitalism Has Ever Occurred Without Some Kind Of Violent Historic Rupture

~ TVSLTDTSF-MIIST-EI-WR-C-‘E-E’-I-TCFTDE ~ The Very Same Logic That Drives The System Forward – Makes It Inevitably Susceptible To – Economic Instabilities – Which Require – Constant – “Extra-Economic” – Interventions – To Compensate For Their Destructive Effects

~ HOAA-H-TD-A-ES-C-IB-TU ~ Hope Of Achieving A – Humane – Truly Democratic – And – Ecologically Sustainable – Capitalism – Is Becoming – Transparently Unrealistic