Abstract

Any consideration of the genesis of capitalism must start from Marx for two reasons: what Marx himself wrote on the subject; and the many accounts developed to explain the formation of modern market society either as alternatives to or elaborations of Marx' theory. Marx sees universal history as a succession of modes of production leading to the final goal: the conciliation of humanity with itself and with nature. The economy therefore explains the economy and everything else, since “religion, family, state, morality, science, art etc., are simply particular modes of production and fall under its general law”; as such, they “have no history, no development.”