Marx does this to show there is no basis upon which capitalism can argue that a future working class revolution taking the means of production from capitalists is immoral, since capitalist wealth is, in all senses, stolen in the first place. So, he talks about what he calls the primitive accumulation of capital – this involves the early capitalists effectively stealing wealth from those around them so they have the initial capital they needed to begin the process of capitalist production and therefore further accumulation of wealth that surplus value brings into being. In Capital, Marx needs to explain how capitalism got started. This book is really something else – I can’t recommend it too highly.
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