ABSTRACT
The widening of markets across political jurisdictions raises concerns about the separation of political and economic institutions. One of the greatest concerns about the emergence of the global market is that firms will be forced by competition to pay the lowest wages and adopt the lowest working standards among all of the participants in the global market. This chapter shows that the emergence of merchant capitalism, and later employer capitalism, caused the shifting of relations and antagonisms between workers, employers, merchants, and financiers. Neoclassical economic theory begins and ends with impersonal exchange between two individuals. Classical economists reasoned that the extension of the market through competitive free trade would maximize public welfare. Increasing division of labor and more capital to work with would increase labor productivity. The development of global production is an extension of the market, and the sequence of effects is creating a new competitive menace.
