materials of production, and hire workers to do the producing. Capital seems
to always presuppose itself. Therefore, Marx writes; “From our current stand-
point it [.. .] seems likely that the capitalist, once upon a time, became pos-
sessed of money by some form of original accumulation that took place
independently of the unpaid labor of other people, and that this was there-
fore how he was able to frequent the market as a buyer of labor-power”
(1976:714). Whence this original accumulation of capital? “‘From [the capi-
talist’s] own labor and that of his forefathers,’ is the unanimous answer of
the spokesmen of political economy” (1976:728). The original accumulation
must derive from some original labor.
From this, the assumption of political economy, Marx shows that even the
simple reproduction of this original capital fund, to say nothing of the actual
accumulation of further capital, transforms the entirety of the original fund
into “value appropriated without an equivalent, the unpaid labor of others”
(1976:715). Thus, even if all capital was born of an immaculate conception, it
must, in the course of its own reproduction and propagation become com-
pletely and utterly the product of exploitation: “When a person consumes
the whole of his property, by taking upon himself debts equal to the value
of that property, it is clear that his property represents nothing but the sum
total of his debts. And so it is with the capitalist” (1976:715).
The capitalist owes his entire wealth, his whole substance, to the workers.
The fraud inherent in capital’s exploitation, therefore, in the course of repro-
duction and accumulation, comes to be treacherous fraud, in precisely Dante’s
sense of breaking a special bond. Capital is the growth of capital, but it can
only accumulate by defrauding its sole benefactors, its “parents.” The more
fully capital develops, the more massive its debt, and the greater its treason.
This treason is nowhere more clearly manifested than in capital’s apocalyp-
tic wastefulness. Capital does not merely steal from the workers; it under-
mines the very sources of its productivity, squandering the earth and the
workers from which it draws its strength. Capital is a traitor to its kin, a frat-
ricide and a matricide, rightly placed in Cocytus alongside Cain.
We have now descended, in both the Infernoand Capital, to the deepest
level. But now that we have reached the ground floor, we must ask: 1) Upon
what does this ground rest? and 2) How do we get out of this place? Marx
and Virgil have both promised us that they can lead us out from these inverted
worlds, so where is the exit?
Dante’s katabasis, if it is to be successful, must lead him to confront his own
48 • William Clare Roberts