This chapter opens with a positive assessment of the insights provided by the so-called “Political Marxists”, and particularly their focus on the market-driven compulsion to compete. However, the idea that the capitalist order in general depends on the “separation of the economic and political spheres” (E M Wood) ignores their contradictory symbiosis, and the consequent indebtedness of the Western nation-states, which is the theme of this book. A similar inattention is to be found in Anievas and Nisancoiglu’s important book on Western domination. However, the broader issue raised here is that although the academic debates over the transition from feudalism to capitalism have yielded many important insights, (despite the many disagreements), the transition beyond capitalism is often left in abeyance even by Marxist theorists, who might be expected to be concerned with that question above all. This chapter argues that a retrospective understanding of the historical formation of the indebted nation-state has become crucial, but it can only become useful if it serves as a step towards the formulation of a revolutionary transitional demand for the abolition of all interest-bearing debt.