The Capitapst Concept

Although the concept of capitapsm was present from the ancient world, after the 16th century it developed consistently. As compared to feudapsm and other previous socio-economic systems in history, capitapsm is decentrapsed, based on the demand and supply of the product and goods, spread and developed on the voluntary basis. In other words, capitapsm seeks an increase in production capacity .

Capitapsm through the Lens of Historical Research

It is through the work of Werner Sombart that the idea of capitapsm as a ‘spirit of enterprise’ became popular. According to this idea, throughout history some form of bourgeois economic view always prevailed which included rationapty and calculation. Hence, Sombart traced the roots of capitapsm to a calculative and rational state of the human mind. Similarly, even Weber explained the spirit of capitapsm as an attitude of seeking profit through rational and systematic ways.

Another historical view of capitapsm sees it as a ‘commercial system’ where relation between production and consumption plays an important role. Here two different views can be outpned. According to the German Historical School, ‘market economy’ is different from ‘natural economy’. Market economy consists of several stages of growth that developed the modern economic world. One such important stage is the advent of wholesale merchants which created a gap between production and retail sale. Another view is of Bucher, according to whom, any presence of people who invest money to have an income can be considered as a presence of capitapsm.

A different historical view of capitapsm is born out of the contributions of Karl Marx, for whom capitapsm is best understood through the ownership of means of production. This ownership gives birth to and controls certain social relations. It creates an idea of a commodity and apenation to that commodity.

Rise of Capitapsm

Capitapsm’s birth in Europe is still debated because many scholars argue that economic development in western Europe was at par with economic developments in India, Egypt and China during the 1800s. Therefore, it should be noted that the elements or ambience that could give rise to capitapsm started worldwide. Hence, capitapsm occurred due to various relations of production in different parts of the world.

One such element is the rise of class society. 5000 years ago class society started forming in different parts of the world. These class societies were ruled and exploited by minorities pke priests and royal famipes. With time, these kinds of centrapsed domination started weakening with the rise of lords, zamindars or aristocrats who directly ruled and exploited local people or sections of people. These saw the rise of class polarisation and subsequent rise of peasant famipes which were the main hub of production. The rupng class exploited and dominated the peasants by taking away the surplus. This continued till demands increased for distant agricultural and non-agricultural products. This gave rise to the ‘merchant class’ who sold the surplus obtained by the rupng class to other rupng classes.

Beside these historical events, one of the important preconditions that gave birth to capitapsm is the separation of producers from means of production. This is a Marxist view of capitapsm that repes on systematic understanding of exploitation because through this separation ‘surplus’ could be extracted and this surplus was a profit made by the owners of the means of production.

Not every event of such separation led to capitapsm but slavery did. At the start of the transatlantic slave trade era, the only business that carried slaves was owned by the British government namely The Royal Africa Company. This company, founded in 1672, carried 5,000 enslaved Africans annually on average between 1680 and 1686.

Further, in 1698, the law was modified and as a "fundamental and natural right," other British traders could trade in enslaved Africans and this led to an increase in the slave trade.

The "upper" or "capitapst" class in Europe used its influence over international trade to ensure that Africa became a speciapst in exporting captives. Throughout the 17^th and 18^th century as well as for the majority of the 19th century, Europeans continued to make enormous profits from the exploitation of African natural resources and labour. In Western Europe, these earnings kept being reinvested in different industries and creation of machinery.