World Market and possibilities of imperialism in Marx’s Capital volume II: exploring the cycle of industrial capital and the reproduction of social capital

Abstract

This paper studies Marx’s Capital Volume II with the purpose of identifying traces of the presence of the world market in the author’s exposition. Furthermore, our aim is to verify whether the cycle of capital and the reproduction of social capital are logically consistent with an exposition on the level of the world market or on the level of a closed national economy. In line with research that supports that the argument of Volume I is conducted on the world market level, we found evidence that allows us to say the same with respect to Volume II. The main result was to demonstrate that the reproduction of social capital necessarily presupposes the world market. We also perceived possibilities of imperialism in Marx’s exposition, either as unequal exchange or as export of capital.