This year marks 150 years since the publication of Marx’s Capital and 100 years since the publication of Lenin’s Imperialism. Both books have played essential roles in advancing knowledge of capitalism both theoretically and historically. Yet, intense controversy has swirled around the legacies of each. However, the most precise understanding to date is that we should analyse the deep structural operating system of capitalism grounded in Marx’s Capital as the basic theory of capitalism. Lenin’s Imperialism is best apprehended as the pioneering attempt to build a stage theory of capitalist development. In the 65th annual conference of the JSPE we will discuss the importance of the two books. The conference is devoted to furthering our understanding of capitalism in its most fundamental incarnation, stages of development, and the historical trajectories of contemporary capitalist economies under neoliberal globalisation with continuing to find themselves mired in crisis, austerity, and burgeoning inequalities.