ABSTRACT
The capitalist system of today is widely acknowledged to be firmly established and likely to endure indefinitely. The hunting period of early history had communistic elements, and vestigial communism continued into the pastoral period. In primitive societies land was sometimes held in common. The economies of these societies were not remotely capitalist systems, but their ritualized trading practices may have contained the seeds of market forces. The emergence of capitalist attitudes and behavior in the British North American colonies is an intriguing subject of historical research given the successor country's unique history as a "new" society in the New World. In response, the New Deal administration introduced various socialist measures to supplement and support traditional American capitalist institutions. By the middle of the twentieth century, capitalism had been modified in ways that reduced its reliance on laissez faire and incorporated elements of socialist doctrine.
