The Evolution of Marx's Perspective of Mercantilism
www.emerald.com
Marx, like orthodox political economists, developed a concept of historical and economic change that corresponds to the period and mode of thought and policy that is today called “mercantilism”. Marx′s treatment of the subject was varied and uneven and did not achieve a fully developed state until his conception of value and capitalism was well defined and he could apply the notion of mercantilism to his analysis of economic development. In his early writings, Marx addressed mercantilism doctrine while mainly ignoring economic developments taking place in the mercantilist era. In the second period, Marx and Engel′s emphasis was shifted to historical development. It was during the third period when Marx developed his theory of surplus value that his conception of mercantilism became grounded in economic development and attained maturity. Only when Marx′s concept of mercantilism had practical significance could its significance be fully developed.

"Mercantilism didn't accumulate true wealth like we do today" (financialized fake economy is only kept afloat by worthless monopoly companies like Uber re-inventing shit we already have, promising to be profitable in 200 years)

PDF: https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/03068298910133098

it was not until he wrote Capital that he embellished upon these points to distinguish between two phases of capitalist economic development. The first of these "was nothing other than the process of divorcing the producer from the means of production'' (Marx, 1967a, p. 714). He called this period "primitive accumulation" because it was "the historic basis instead of the historic result of specifically capitalist product" (p. 624). The period of primitive accumulation was typified by a relatively constant organic composition of capital, i.e. the proportion of constant to variable capital did not change substantially. The second period, industrial capitalism, was characterised by a rising organic composition of capital (an increasing proportion of constant to variable capital) with a greater concentration of the means of production and a rapid increase in accumulation.

This distinction between nearly and late capitalist development enabled Marx to go beyond the analysis of economic history in terms of the emergence of money capital and to place greater emphasis on the production process. In particular, it provided him with considerable insight into the process of economic growth during the mercantile era, since, as Marx envisaged the mercantile system, it roughly corresponded to the period of primitive accumulation. Marx therefore viewed mercantile surplus value as being generated "absolutely" by extending the total amount of necessary labour time, e.g. a lengthening of the working day, rather than "relatively" through productivity increases, as is so frequently the case under industrial capitalism. That is to say, surplus value did not tend to increase relatively during the period of mercantilism because that period lacked the technological progress that was characteristic of industrial capitalism. Unlike industrial capitalism, therefore, commodity production is comparatively limited so economic activity tends to focus principally on the money gains originating with commerce rather than material production. (This had been Marx's argument in The German Ideology, 1976a). At the same time, the surplus value generated absolutely during the mercantilist era was essential to Marx's explanation of industrial capitalism. It was undoubtedly the latter consideration that prompted Marx to present an extensive discussion of mercantilism in the third volume of Capital (1976b