Modern acceleration began in distribution and trade, not in production
Evidence
Since no value is created here (rather, the realization of created surplus value is delayed) circulation time appears to be a “time of devalorization” according to Marx. Hence the compulsion to accelerate weighs quite heavily on it. … Of particular interest with respect to the genesis of the modern dynamic of acceleration is the fact that from a historical point of view acceleration driven by the logic of capital valorization began not in the sphere of production but precisely in the spheres of distribution and circulation: as we have already seen, transportation and communication noticeably accelerate from the seventeenth century onward, long before the great technological innovations that led to the acceleration of production processes. One essential reason for this is that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries capital first accumulated in the area of trade, that is, in the sphere of circulation. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 453
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Significant transport acceleration preceded steam engines and telegraphs by decades — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 303; Pre-modern power operated intermittently while modern power infiltrates production continuously