Useful references to Marx's analysis of free trade.
NB the concept of "a sort of monopoly " in the passage below and apply on a world scale.
I think this is identical in essence to what Rakesh is calling "quasi monopolies.
Capital Vol 1 Chap 15 Machinery and Modern Industry, Section 3b Prolongation of Working Day.
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Machinery produces relative surplus-value; not only by directly
depreciating the value of labour-power, and by indirectly cheapening the
same through cheapening the commodities that enter into its reproduction,
but also, when it is first introduced sporadically into an industry, by
converting the labour employed by the owner of that machinery, into labour
of a higher degree and greater efficacy, by raising the social value of the
article produced above its individual value, and thus enabling the
capitalist to replace the value of a day's labour-power by a smaller
portion of the value of a day's product. During this transition period,
when the use of machinery is a sort of monopoly, the profits are therefore
exceptional, and the capitalist endeavours to exploit thoroughly "the sunny
time of this his first love," by prolonging the working-day as much as
possible. The magnitude of the profit whets his appetite for more profit.
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Chris Burford
London