Marx and China: the problem of expansion of capitalism

Abstract

This article, based on Marx’s writings on China, intends to show the existence of a fundamental inflection in his thinking in the late 1850s. Our thesis points to a transformation in the way the author of The Capital conceives the development of capitalism. This mode of production is no longer based upon the development of trade and the social division of labor, but in the original expropriation, in the conscious and violent dissolution of previous social forms. Therefore, we intend to demonstrate that there is a rupture of Marx with some formulations present in the Communist Manifesto, German Ideology, as well as articles on India and China written in the early 1850s. Finally, we point out the profound consequences of this inflection in its later elaboration, particularly in The Capital.