The origins of capitalism as a social system : the prevalence of an aleatory encounter

Introduction -- Capitalism and its origins: the theoretical context -- Marx's notion of capitalism: a synoptic account -- Marx's two approaches to the genesis of capitalism : the "productive forces - relations of production dialectic' -- Early forms of capitalism and wage labour : Lenin's polemic against the narodniks -- Capitalism and the agrarian sector : Karl Kautsky's theoretical intervention -- Post-World War II marxist approaches to the "transition to capitalism" question -- Non-marxist approaches to the origins of capitalism -- Modes of production and the pre-capitalist money-owner -- Venice and the Mediterranean: a discourse on the birth of capitalism -- From a Byzantine exarchate to a major colonial power in the Mediterranean : a historical sketch of the rise of Venice up to 1204 -- The Venetian social formation until the end of the thirteenth century : an unconsummated process of original accumulation -- War economics and the ascent of capitalism in the fourteenth century -- After the encounter took hold : the reproduction of capitalism on an expanded scale -- Venice alongside the new capitalist powers -- Political power and social cohesion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index