250 years of modern Capitalism: A reconstruction of its dynamics (Table of Contents)

A work in progress

«I pre-suppose, of course, a reader who is willing to learn something new and therefore to think for himself. […] Every opinion based on scientific criticism I welcome» (Karl Marx,  Preface to the First German Edition of Capital)

Taking up a longstanding concern of Marx’s that he was unable to fulfill, the following presents a work treating the past 250 years of Capitalism at the hand of examined statistic sources on its economic dynamic, in order to draw out its perspectives.

The original version of this article is published at the ‘Capitalisme & Crises Économiques’ website (in French language). The translated parts that become progressively available on this blog, can be found in the following table.

A Free Retriever’s Digest, July, 2019

Note: In accordance with the author, the title has been changed to refer to the past 250 years of capitalism  as “industrial” or “modern” capitalism. (October 15, 2019)

Last updated: November 2020 (added Chapter 3)

Contents

Introduction

1. A rapid overview of 250 years of modern Capitalism

  • From the Industrial Revolution to the End of the twofold Bipolarization of the World

  • The four times of the power relations between the classes

2. The Class Struggle from 1760 to the Russian Revolution

3. An economically polarized World

Annex on the data and on methodology

  • Main economic variables (1760 – 2018)

  • Sources and Presentation of the Data

    • Data sources for our graphs

    • Presentation of the data

    • Notes on the choice of the series on the evolution of real wages

  • The calculation of the rate of surplus value in Great Britain

  • Complementary graphs: Gini Indexes for the USA, Japan and Spain

Indexes

  • List of graphs, tables and maps

  • Bibliography

Last updated: November 26, 2020.