The relentless revolution: a history of capitalism Read Online Free PDF

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    One of the principal arguments of this book is that there was nothing inexorable, inevitable, or destined about the emergence of capitalism. So why make such a big deal about this? Why insist that the seeds of capitalism were not planted in the Middle Ages or that a capitalist mentality was not hardwired in human beings? Why? Because those notions aren’t true. The powerful propulsive force of capitalist ways, once a breach with tradition had been made, is largely responsible for giving an aura of inevitability to their arrival on the human scene.
    Societies that are resistant to capitalist ways today appear unnatural. Yet Europeans actually deviated from a global norm. Another important point: We should not make the first capitalist transformation a template for all others because that course of events could never be duplicated. Nor did countries that adopted a capitalist system, after England had shown the way, have to have the same qualities needed for the initial breakthrough. The same holds true for countries becoming capitalist today. Copying is not the same as innovating.
    Because capitalism began in England with the convergence of agricultural improvements, global explorations, and scientific advances means that capitalism came into human history with an English accent and followed the power trail that England projected around the globe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This meant that the market economy retained a bit of foreignness for those for whom English and, by extension, capitalism are second languages. For England’s neighbors and rivals, there was little choice but to imitate what the French in the eighteenth century called the English miracle. Other societies have elaborated their own variants of capitalism, often trying to protect certain customs and habits from capitalist imperatives. The people of Africa, the Middle East, India, and the East Indies had capitalism thrust upon them as Western Europeans arrived to exploit their resources. Still others, like the native people of North and South America, retreated into their communities when Europeans threatened their way of life and they were made strangers in their homelands.
    Appreciating that capitalism is a historical development and not a discovery of universal principles brings clarity about one thing: The experience of the first capitalist country was unique. The range of possibilities for other countries remains to be discovered. Because capitalism as an economic system impinges upon the whole society, each country has and will transform its values and practices in its own way. The roles of culture, contingency, and coercion, so critically important in the history of capitalism, should not be obscured. Not only has the market changed with every generation, but the possibilities for capitalist development have been and still are many and varied.
    In its forward thrust, capitalism acquired champions who insisted on the natural quality of capitalism. All cultures are natural in that they draw upon inherent human qualities and there are many potentialities planted in the human breast. Not all human qualities are called into play in every culture. Culture is a selecting mechanism, choosing among the diverse human skills and propensities to fashion a way for people to live together in a specific location at a certain time. A growing field in biology, epigenetics, studies how particular environments activate certain genes in human beings that can then be passed on to their progeny. Without the environmental trigger, the gene remains inert. This suggests that there is a very intricate interchange between our biology and our culture, one that goes well beyond the familiar nature-nurture relationship. All people may be self-interested, but what interests them depends a lot upon the society in which they