ABSTRACT
The rivalry between multiple political units has not been simply a historical accident but an essential condition for the rise and expansion of the capitalist world system. Under the constant and intense pressure of inter-state competition, national states are motivated to support capitalist accumulation or undertake accumulation directly. The British hegemony rested upon the British dominance over the world industrial production as well as its global colonial empire. Compared to the growth rates of the Industrial Revolution, the British pace of capital accumulation had approximately doubled by the mid-nineteenth century. The massive accumulation of overseas assets greatly enhanced the global power and wealth of the British capitalist class in the short run. The British capitalist response to the profit rate crisis after the First World War anticipated the neoliberal restructuring in the late twentieth century. Fiscal and monetary austerity led to sustained high unemployment that helped to turn the balance of power between classes to the favor of the capitalists.
