Review on the Study about the Continuity of Primitive Accumulation and Its Derivative Issues by Western Scholars since the 21st Century

The issue on the continuity of primitive accumulation, that is, whether primitive accumulation is a pre-capitalist phenomenon or a continuous process of capitalism, has sparked many disputes but was inconclusive in Western academic circles. Since the 21st century, with the increasingly prominent dispossession of public assets such as public facilities and social welfare by capital, Western academic circles have developed new interest in Marx's concept of primitive accumulation, the theme on the continuity of primitive accumulation and its derivative issues such as the difference between primitive accumulation and capitalist accumulation, the relationship between primitive accumulation and the "outside" of capital, have once again become the debate focus among Western scholars. Most Western scholars agree that primitive accumulation is a continuous process of capitalism; at the same time, they argue that there is no essential difference between primitive accumulation and capitalist accumulation. Primitive accumulation ensures the conditions for capitalist expanded reproduction through the enclosure of capital's "outside". Western scholars' multi-perspective discussion about the issue on the continuity of primitive accumulation and its derivative issues have brought enlightening thoughts to the relevant research in China's academic circles, but their views also have theoretical defects due to their departure from Historical Materialism.