Karl Marx's view on the capitalistic mode of production highlights the exploitative nature of this economic system and points to its development as a necessary continuation of feudal societies many centuries ago. He demonstrates how the bourgeoisie take advantage of the labor power of the proletariat, creating profit and fueling the expansion necessary to keep profit margins at acceptable levels. Marx argues that this economic system, in which capital is the basis of wealth, sprung from the fall of feudalism when the means of production made obsolete the feudalistic relations of production, in which ownership of land was the basis of wealth. His claim, therefore, that capitalistic societies are exploitative class societies is true when
For instance, instead of the simple two class system Marx outlines in modern capitalist society, feudalistic relations of production involved a complicated class structure, involving the lords, vassals, guild masters, journeymen, apprentices, and serfs. Each of these classes fulfilled an important function towards the beginning of the feudalistic era, but the bourgeoisie had begun to siphon power from lords and vassals by the decline. The rise of a bourgeoisie class was due to another important change, which was the transition of the basis of wealth. In feudalistic society, the basis of wealth, and thereby power, was the ownership of land. Feudal lords owned land and people would offer their labor and allegiance to live upon it and achieve stability. However, with the rise of towns and the development of trade, the merchant classes eventually made the transition to early bourgeoisie in that their economic power was derived from trade and capital, and their profits could be reinvested into the process which had earned them those profits. Thus the far more simplistic class system of bourgeoisie and proletariat emerged and gained prevalence. The bourgeoisie then found that they were not only able to expand to new markets and increase their operations and thereby profits, but they also found that this process was necessary in order to sustain their profit margins. This is a fundamental aspect of the capitalistic mode of production which