SOC101Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Ellen Meiksins Wood, Labour Power, Social Reproduction
Document Summary
The agrarian origins of capitalism ellen meiksins wood. Capitalism emerged in the west because of what was absent: constraints on urban economic practices. In the conditions of the west, it took natural expansion of trade to trigger the development of capitalism. In pre-capitalist societies, these producers have direction access to the means of their own reproduction. When their surplus labor has been appropriated by exploiters, it has been done by. Extra-economic means by force, coercion, political power etc. Difference between pre-capitalist societies and capitalism: the particular property relations between producers and appropriators. Since direct producers do not have property, their only access to a means of production is to sell themselves and their labor power in order to get money. Capitalists can take over the workers" surplus labor without direct coercion because the workers are going to want to work on their own, since it is their only means of getting money.
