Abstract:
The paper aims to analyze, in a historical perspective, as well as in a theoretical view, the unity and the contradiction between national economies and capitalism. On the one hand, in a historical perspective, it demonstrates that the unity takes place in the period of consolidation of capitalism as a national economy. It also argues that the contradiction means that the capitalist development implies a commercial, productive and financial progressive opening of the national economies. Moreover, it shows that the globalization process of capitalism takes form through three historical configurations: the "inter-national", the "multi-national" and the global configuration. On the other hand, in a theoretical view point, the article argues that the capitalist globalization process is irreversible.