Early capitalism

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The early capitalism (also called merchant capitalism called) is one of the German sociologist and economist Werner Sombart in his book Modern capitalism from 1902 coined term that an economic form of society describes that in the still prevailing feudalism from this principle difference is that the money and the private ownership of the means of production had grown in importance over the possession of land. The corresponding process of change began in the late Middle Ages (mid- 13th to the end of the 15th century ) and continued in the early modern period (mid- 15th to mid- 17th century ).

Mark

Early capitalism was a forerunner of capitalism , as manual technology was still used predominantly . It emerged from elements of simple commodity production and commercial capitalism. The increasing shift from the barter economy to the money economy allowed the formation of capital and thus the possibility of generating income with interest, profits or lease. The church's ban on interest initially limited this possibility, but could be circumvented in various ways.

Characteristic of this epoch was the emerging banking system in Italy , which spread throughout Europe and beyond, as well as the increasing importance of long-distance trade . This was dependent on the international markets . The European seaports formed important transshipment centers for this, and they advanced to become important centers of these markets even more than they were before . The process of the formation of commercial capital and corresponding forms of monetary transactions and its institutional security is also known as the commercial revolution .

In addition to the banking, credit and insurance companies , the publishing industry also emerged . A market-oriented economic structure developed .

Early capitalism as a phase of transition

Early capitalism represented an intermediate stage between the economics in feudalism and capitalism in that land ownership was less and less a source of wealth and the financing of the state was increasingly dependent on the banking system. The production of goods and goods in feudalism was strongly influenced by natural economy , with the overwhelming part of the population consisting of farmers who, however, were not owners of the land they cultivated . Because this land was the property of the landlord .

The social prerequisites such as contract-based free wage labor , lease contracts for peasants instead of serfdom and bondage first prevailed in the course of early bourgeois revolutions on the western edges of Europe against the traditional birthright and privilege system of the nobility with its feudal basic order.

With the emergence of early capitalism, the entrepreneurs of this time achieved a monopoly position not only through the market, but often through loans to state sovereigns (for example to finance standing armies ). The prosperous industries were banking and mining . Only in the course of the industrial revolution from the middle of the 18th century did mass production ( manufactories ) become lucrative.

Furthermore, there was a tendency towards economic forms in the form of companies (e.g. trading companies ; ital. Compagnia ). This was followed by the separation of private and professional areas. Financial accounting became more important. This made itself felt in the emergence of double-entry bookkeeping , the trading and business manuals. A further characteristic was the increased efficiency in production and the increased occurrence of the financial and social dependencies resulting from the money traffic. This corresponded to the picture of the economic social formation of Karl Marx in his criticism of the political economy - in the parts that refer to this age .

The advance of the Ottomans into Asia Minor , which reached its temporary climax with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, increasingly hampered European merchants on their trade routes to Asia. This is one of the reasons why Portuguese and Spanish seafarers expanded their nautical ventures. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, and Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India proper in 1497, which led him around the southern tip of Africa across the Indian Ocean . The increasing spread of letterpress printing , Johann Gutenberg invented letterpress printing with movable letters around 1450, allowed new knowledge and ideas to be spread more quickly and indirectly promoted literacy . The rich bourgeoisie gradually pushed back the domination of the nobility and clergy, which had existed since the Middle Ages, such as the Fuggers in Augsburg , who were indirectly involved in the indulgence trade as bankers of the popes and even the election of the German Emperor Charles V in 1517 (HRR) or the Welser resident in Augsburg and Nuremberg or the Florentine Medici . The origins of the capitalist mode of production lie in the medieval cities , where the power of the princes was restricted early on by privileges or by a strong, economically influential bourgeoisie. Particularly noteworthy here are the trade fair cities or the Italian trading cities, where numerous traders and goods met and economic activity was barely regulated.

Influence of the patriciate

Representative of this society was the class of the patriciate , which formed guilds in the cities . This was also done in order to emphasize his interests as an urban upper class vis-à-vis the council of a town or vis-à-vis the liege lord or territorial lord . Viewed as an overview, monetary transactions promoted the development of the bourgeoisie as a social class.

The patricians also had an influence on political decisions. It was not uncommon for corporate management to merge with political ambitions to rule. The Medici Bank appeared, for example, as a papal bank or as a financier of councils . This was the case, for example, at the Council of Basel / Ferrara / Florence . The Fuggers in Augsburg, in turn, acted as the imperial house bank. The Italian Peruzzi , Bardi and Medici, the Ango from Rouen and Dieppe , the Augsburg Fugger and Welser , the Nuremberg Tucher or Imhoff and, last but not least, the Europe-wide postmasters from the Taxis family also provided examples of entrepreneurial dynasties with long-term and decisive political influence. Through the association of political rule as a result of the social rise from the merchant class, through the guilds and guilds to political offices and corporate management, a network of relationships was created that is known as the patronage system. One of the most famous was that of the Medici in Florence , who had branches in the most important financial and trading centers in Europe. Ultimately, patronage is also a part of this patronage system.

Spread

Early capitalism initially spread mainly in the supranational and urban environment of Europe, while alongside - primarily in rural areas - feudalism with its feudal system and the dependence of the peasants on the feudal lord continued to dominate early modern society. This was also one of the reasons for the outbreak of the German Peasants' War and further social unrest.

The discoveries in the New World under Christopher Columbus as well as Magellan's circumnavigation were in turn prerequisites for the emergence of early modern world trade . But this also led to speculation . The national bankruptcies of Spain , the Netherlands and France, for example, drove the Welser company , which itself owned a colony in Venezuela , into financial ruin. An economic structure oriented towards the global market developed. The global orientation had become possible due to the colonial journeys by Europeans and the knowledge they gained about distant markets and trade routes. This orientation of the European economic and colonial activities also led to the "trade in slavery as the first wave of an unbalanced globalization" and so a large part of today's global economic and political "dominance structures can be traced back to the time of colonialism"

Beginning of capitalism as a historical epoch

Modern capitalism, with the overcoming of feudal society , only gained acceptance with the dawn of modernity from the turn of the century from the 18th to the 19th century , the industrial revolution that started in England from around 1750 and the associated bourgeois revolutions until the middle of the 19th century , for example through the peasants' liberation and the elimination of compulsory guilds . The former third class of European society, the revolutionary bourgeoisie , developed in its financially rich parts into the bourgeoisie and, in the course of comparatively few decades, gradually replaced the still ruling nobility and the ruling royal houses of Europe in their political supremacy.

See also

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard: The European enslavement of African people . In: Susan Arndt, Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard (eds.): How racism speaks from words. (K) Heirs of colonialism in the knowledge archive of the German language. A critical reference work . 2nd Edition. Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2015, p. 103-113 // p. 108 .
  2. ↑ Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard: Colonial Continuities in Germany . In: Susan Arndt, Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard (eds.): How racism speaks from words. (K) Heirs of colonialism in the knowledge archive of the German language. A critical reference work . 2nd Edition. Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2015, p. 136-153 // 139 .