ABSTRACT
Capitalism arises and develops historically amidst a non-capitalist soci-
ety. In Western Europe it is found at first in a feudal environment from
which it in fact sprang-the system of bondage in rural areas and the
guild system in the towns-and later, after having swallowed up the
feudal system, it exists mainly in an environment of peasants and
artisans, that is to say in a system of simple commodity production
both in agriculture and trade. European capitalism is further sur-
rounded by vast territories of non-European civilisation ranging over
all levels of development, from the primitive communist hordes of
nomad herdsmen, hunters and gatherers to commodity production by
peasants and artisans. This is the setting for the accumulation of capital.
