The Dynamics of Capitalism

Abstract

Essential to the Marxian analysis is the dynamic nature of capitalism and its ability to produce and to reproduce the capitalist relations of production. The reproduction of capital is a circular process in which commodities which embody surplus value are produced and sold. In addition, labour power and the means of production are bought to renew the process. Marx explains this by utilizing two models of a capitalist economy, one in a stationary state general equilibrium and another of a growing economy, to make manifest the role that money plays in the growth process. However, it is important to understand how this dynamism arises as a historical process that begins with the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the process of primitive accumulation and the appropriation of land from the peasant.