Elinor Meiksins Wood traced capitalism’s origin to English agrarian property relations

Evidence

Over the years historians have adopted this term to describe the “laws” of industrial capitalism. For example, economic historian Ellen Meiksins Wood documents the origins of capitalism in the changing relations between English property owners and tenant farmers, as the owners began to favor productivity over coercion: “The new historical dynamic allows us to speak of ‘agrarian capitalism’ in early modern England, a social form with distinctive ‘laws of motion’ that would eventually give rise to capitalism in its mature, industrial form.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 204

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines agrarian capitalism as a social form with its own laws of motion preceding industrial capitalism.
• XREF: Connects to Wood’s theory of capitalism’s agrarian origins in early modern England — relevant to the reader’s broader interest in how capitalism’s forms arise and shift. — connects to: Distinctive property relations generate capitalism’s market imperatives — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 205; English agrarian capitalism disciplined church, monarchy, and masses in turn; Capitalism emerged from feudalism, not as its negation — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 18 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Distinctive property relations generate capitalism’s market imperatives #expands (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 205
• English agrarian capitalism disciplined church, monarchy, and masses in turn #expands (0.85)
• Capitalism extended feudal relations rather than negating them #corroborates (0.80)
• Capitalism emerged from feudalism, not as its negation #corroborates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 18
• Feudalism’s social composition determined capitalism’s form #corroborates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 198
• Capitalism’s form was determined by preexisting feudal civilization #corroborates (0.75)