 Like Hegel, Marx asserts that conflict drives historical development. But in Marx's account, conflict occurs when the productive forces outgrow the relations of production (1845, 196).  A different class of society represents each side of the conflict.  The class that benefits from the outmoded relations of production seeks to maintain them, while the losing class seeks to destroy them and replace them. For instance, capitalism emerged from feudal aristocracy when the merchants, through revolution, rewrote the laws in their favor (1848, 477–8, 484).  Capitalism is a system in which land and labor are commodities able to be bought and sold on the free market.  Marx predicts that communism will emerge from capitalism because the productive forces developed within a capitalist society will eventually make capitalist property rights unworkable (1848, 477).  At this point, the working class, or proletariat, will successfully overthrow the old order (1845, 161–2). 