He Emergence of capitalism Has been the subject of multiple economic and sociological positions, although all agree that it was born in the fifteenth century in Europe.
The crisis of feudalism (previous system) gave way to the new capitalist system. Its characteristics are beginning to be visible to historians in the Middle Ages , At a time when economic life migrates transitorily from the countryside to the city.
The money changer and his wife. Quentin Massys.
Manufacturing and commerce began to be much more profitable and profitable than the work of the land. This led to an unprecedented increase in income on the part of feudal families to the peasants. Throughout Europe, peasant revolts took place protesting the abrupt rise in taxes.
The demographic catastrophe that Bubonic plague It meant one of the greatest famines in history. People felt that feudalism would not respond to the economic and social demands of the population, it is there when the transition from one system to another begins.
Throughout Europe, burgos (new town planning) were installed. In them, people began -incipiently- to specialize in the workforce of skins, wood and metals mainly. That is, to add value to things and market or exchange them.
While the inhabitants of the burghers took power and accumulated capital, the fiefs suffered meteorological attacks, bad harvests and pests that weakened them.
Factors for the rise of capitalism
One of the characteristics that gave way to capitalism is that in Europe a bourgeois could have more wealth than a feudal lord and a king, while in the rest of the feudal world no one could hold more wealth than the one who wielded power.
Etymologically the word capitalism derives from the idea of capital and use of private property. However, today its meaning goes further, contemporary capitalism took the form of market economy and for many authors is a system.
For the father of classical liberalism, Adam Smith , People have always tended to" Make barter, exchange and exchange of some things for others "For this reason, capitalism arose spontaneously in the Modern Age.
Karl Marx, in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, calls the bourgeois class a"revolutionary class"for opposing the feudal system, establishing another mode of production and universalizing it. For Marx the bourgeois class created capitalism and, in turn, the contradictions that would put an end to it.
Renaissance philosophy and the spirit of Protestant Reformation Became ideological bastions of capitalism in the fourteenth century. These movements questioned the worldview of the feudal state and introduced ideas of Modern-National States that propitiated the ideological conditions for the rise of capitalism.
Capitalism emerged as a historical necessity of the moment and responded to various social and economic problems of feudal society.
Historical Stages of Capitalism
Throughout its six centuries capitalism has been transformed, has gone through different stages that will be discussed below.
Commercial capitalism
It took place between the XVI and XVIII centuries. It should not be confused with the simple trade of goods because merchants and exchange have existed since the beginning of civilization.
He Commercial capitalism Appeared for the first time in England with the trade of ports. The accumulation of wealth generated through trade gradually introduced the structure of the market society and became more and more complex the transactions.
Industrial capitalism
The second phase of capitalism begins with the Industrial Revolution In the second half of the eighteenth century. It was a decisive economic, social and technological transformation that exponentially increased the accumulation of capital and consolidated capitalism.
Historians and sociologists argue that for the first time the population experienced a sustained increase in the standard of living. From that moment on we moved to schemes of machinery to replace animal traction and manual labor.
Financial Capitalism
Monopoly capitalism emerged in the twentieth century and continues to this day. The rapid increase and multiplication of capital also led to the development of banks and financial institutions.
Bankers and bag owners discovered that one of the ways to make money is by having money. Previously, the way to produce money was under the scheme D-M-D (Money-Merchandise-Money) now became D + D: D (Money + Money: Money)
Contemporary capitalism integrates these three stages in terms of the accumulation of capital. Authors like Vladimir Lenin argue that the last phase of capitalism is not the financial one, but the Imperialist phase As a form of economic domination of industrial nations to backward nations.
Mercantilism
It was born as a form of nationalist capitalism in the sixteenth century. Its main characteristic is that it united the interests of the State with the industrial ones. That is to say, it used the use of the state apparatus to boost national companies inside and outside the territory.
For mercantilism, wealth is increased through what they called the "Positive trade balance", In which if exports exceed imports it would be giving rise to the original accumulation of capital.
Weber and the Protestant Reformation
The German sociologist and economist Max Weber In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism In 1904 exposes the influence of the religious element in the rise of capitalism.
In this book we study Lutheran and Calvinist Protestantism and their significance in culture. For Weber, Calvinism was more decisive and influential than Lutheranism In the way of life and morality of the bourgeoisie in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Weber thinks that capitalism arose because Calvinism proclaimed habits and ideas that favored economic well-being as a condition for redemption. Calvin advocated maximizing performance and minimizing unnecessary spending.
According to Weber, Calvin in his Protestant ethic placed as a condition sine qua non the scope of prosperity to draw closer to God. This propitiated the massive idea of labor and the accumulation of capital in devotees of this tendency.
Some scholars attribute to Protestantism the accelerated growth and expansion of the United States, which went from being a colony of the United Kingdom where Protestants came to be - now and for 200 years - the capitalist power and richest nation in the world.
For Weber it is Calvinism that gives rise to capitalist morality, the spirit of progress and the accumulation of wealth. This conception manages to inculcate the idea of glorifying God while being successful in economic life.
Beginnings of capitalism and state participation
In principle capitalism and the processes of modernization arise as an initiative of the bourgeois classes who opposed feudalism. The state played no role in the early development of European capitalism. In America, the processes of modernization and industrialization - on the contrary - are sponsored by the State.
The first political and economic doctrine that studied the subject of the state in the economy was liberalism. Its most famous representatives are John Locke and Adam Smith. The classical liberals maintain that the intervention of the State must be reduced to the minimum expression.
Classical liberal thought established that the state should only deal with the laws to preserve private property, the defenses of freedoms and the design of policies for the market to regulate itself freely.
Opposite was the Marxist current, whose ideas were carried out in the Soviet Union from 1917. Under the vision of the Marxist authors this free competition and reduction of the state left the majorities without rights.
For this reason, the main levers of the economy had to be managed by the State to guarantee the welfare of the majority.
Although later theorists like Angel Capelleti, denominate to the order of Soviet Union like"State Capitalism" . After seeing the effects of an uncontrolled market in 1929 and feeling the inefficiency of too large States, the authors came up with another path.
One of the most accepted approaches is the one of the researcher John Keynes, the"keinesianismo", in which there had to be a balance between the functions of the State in the economy and the freedom of the private ones to carry out their work.
Capitalism in History
All new systems have emerged as a result of the implosion and crisis of old systems. Without the wars, the crusades, the pestilences and the increase in the material necessities of the population, the transit to the capitalism would surely have been postponed several centuries.
Capitalism meant an advance in the mode of production and the generation of wealth for the bourgeois and the National States, but it has a significant debt to the environment and the rights of the workers.
For some researchers capitalism has been the cause of wars between nations and for others the greatest advance of the millennium.
References
- Beaud, M. (2013) History of Capitalism . Editorial Ariel. Buenos Aires.
- Cappelletti, A. (1992) Leninism, bureaucracy and perestroika. Editorial Oveja Negra. Bogotá.
- Czech, F; Nieto, V. (1993) The Renaissance: formation and crisis of the classic model. Editorial Illustrated.
- Globus, C. (2014) The Great History of Capitalism or How Money Controls the World . Editorial Globus. Madrid Spain.
- Smith, Adam. (1776) The Wealth of Nations. Editorial William Strahan, Thomas Cadell.
- Marx, K. (1848) Manifesto of the Communist Party . Editorial Longseller. Argentina.
- Keines, J. (1936) General theory of employment, interest and money . Editorial Palgrave Macmillan. London.
- Weber, M. (1905) Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism . Editorial Alianza. Spain.
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2017) Capitalism . Retrieved from: wikipedia.org.