Marxism Vs Mercantilism

Karl Marx believed that the only way to understand present day’s economic system, you need to study history and social class. Capitalism emerged from pre-capitalist societies like slave economies, feudalism and mercantilism. These societies are all connected to each other through development, decay and replacement. These societies are never static and always evolving. Rome’s slave economy transformed into feudalism and then mercantilism developed from feudalism. Over time, mercantilism leads to what we call modern day capitalism.

Even now it is easy to see a division of society between the haves and have not’s. Marx saw this division throughout history as well. In Rome’s slave society, there was conflict between the slaves and those who were

free. In Europe, those who had land and those who worked the land. This division of status played into the economic development and class relations. Marx groups the capitalist society into two main classes, the owners of production (bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletariat). In the United States, class conflict every so often comes to the public’s awareness. For instance, the Occupy Wall Street movement has stressed class conflict by emphasizing wealth inequalities between the richest 1% of the population and the remaining 99%.