A periodization of capitalism seeks to distinguish stages of development that help understanding of features of capitalism through time.

The most popular periodizations that have been proposed distinguish these stages as:

1 early or concorrential/ monopoly/ state monopoly capitalism (Sweezy etc.)

2 free trade/ monopoly/ finance capitalism (Hilferding etc.)

3 early capitalism (primitive accumulation )/ colonialism/ imperialism (Hobson, Lenin, Bukharin)

4 extensive stage/ intensive stage/ (late capitalism) (Aglietta )

References
Aglietta, Michel (1976) Régulation et crises du capitalisme Kalmann-Lévy, Paris

see also Nikolai Bukharin
Rudolf Hilferding
John A. Hobson
Ernest Mandel
Paul Sweezy