Abstract:

In Marx’s era, free trade primarily referred to capitalist free trade. He had already clarified its dual historical role: while serving as the economic medium for the transition to world history, it became distorted and alienated under the capital logic, degenerating into a political weapon and a negative variable in the evolution of world history. Politicized free trade defies market principles, amplifying the spatial expansion of capital power and catalyzing the universalization of class antagonism. This serves as the economic prelude to social revolution. It is through the evolutionary process of expanding from the contest between genuine and pseudo-free trade to social revolution that world history has been gradually cultivated and shaped. Marx’s theory of world history profoundly reveals the logic of this interplay and evolution. Far from being outdated, it has continuously opened new practical domains amid a century of transformation, thereby retaining formidable theoretical vitality and practical guidance.

Key words: free trade, social revolution, Marx, world history, economic globalization