Marxist Debates on the Origin of Capitalism Explored Based on an Althusserian Perspective

Abstract This article examines Marxist debates surrounding the origins of capitalism, focusing on the “primitive accumulation of capital” as posited by Karl Marx and its implications for understanding the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Through an Althusserian lens emphasizing “overdetermination”, the article examines three theories involved in two major intra-Marxist debates: the Brenner-Wallerstein controversy, and the Wallerstein-Frank exchange. This analysis contends that Wallerstein’s framework adheres more closely to historical materialism, despite its one concept related to empiricism (the concept of “World-System”). Both Brenner’s and Frank’s frameworks devolve into empiricist analysis—Brenner into humanism and Frank into historicism—making their theories on the origin of capitalism completely wrong. The article asserts that a proper understanding of capitalism’s origins must account for the “overdetermination”, meaning the dominant relation of production defining the “totality of the relations of production” during a specific historical period. Such an understanding would lead to considering the social role of colonialism in the development of capitalism as a mode of production. Ultimately, the article argues that while Wallerstein’s theory is the most accurate in its historical materialist approach, its “World-System” conceptualization blurs essential Marxist principles, necessitating a return to the orthodox framework of the “mode of production”.