Re: The Prize by Any Other Name

["John M. Legge" <jlegge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Harry,

I think that your thoughts have little historical support.  Fundamental
capitalist institutions began to emerge in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries; the reformation occupied the sixteenth while Dutch capitalism
emerged in the seventeenth and was translated to England at the start of the
seventeenth.  The industrial revolution started in the mid-seventeenth
century and the legal revolution, the emergence of freedom of contract that
made widespread capitalist relations possible, occupied the last quarter of
the seventeenth century.

The philosophical background to the English legal reforms emerged in France,
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and before the Revolution, a
time when France was a solidly Catholic as at any time in its history.

At best you might assert that the intellectual ferment associated with the
development of full blooded nineteenth century capitalism might have been
suppressed had the Reformation failed, which is a long way from linking
capitalism to the Protestant Ethic.

BTW, claims that the pursuit of economic improvement is "natural" require
either historical blinkers or a very peculiar definition of economic
improvement.  Most people are most strongly motivated by the expectations of
their peers, and entrepreneurial ambition means leaving your peers behind,
or turning them into subordinates, neither generally attracting much peer
approval.  When you look at real entrepreneurs you will find that economic
(i.e. wealth) ambition is usually a secondary motive at best.  Most of them
want to do something, or build something, and money is one of the
construction materials.

JML


> -----Original Message-----
> From: pkt-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pkt-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Harry Veeder
>
>
> I think Capitalism as an economic system emerged as a
> social adaptation to the religious tensions of
> the Reformation.
>
> Harry Veeder
>
> ----------
>