History of Capitalism I

This book explores the origin and development of capitalism in its broad historical, political, and ideological contexts, from the middle of the first millennium AD to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century. Trading activities along the Silk Road, which formed the basis of oriental globalisation, gave rise to a latent form of capitalism, whose protagonists had no direct share in political power. This variant became established in the great Asian empires—in China, India, and Persia—as well as in early modern Spain and France. In contrast, manifest capitalism was formed in medieval Venice and other Italian city-states, where a commercial and financial oligarchy subjugated the state apparatus as a tool for capital accumulation. Manifest capitalism is characterised by the creation of a hierarchy of exploited peripheries and an oscillation between productive and financial phases of growth. In the 16th century, its centre of gravity shifted from northern Italy to Amsterdam, and after 1688 to London, from where manifest capitalism sponsored the creation of the British Empire and its global economic system.