ABSTRACT
This chapter’s reconstruction first distinguishes, following Weber, between capitalism and modern capitalism; it then reviews several explanations for the rise of modern capitalism common in the literature of his day. All are rejected. Once again, Weber’s analysis is highly multi-causal.
Although the West’s economy of the Middle and High Middle Ages expanded strongly in the cities, Catholicism’s traditional economic ethic and feudalism placed strong obstacles against its growth. Patrimonial empires did so as well, as did the significant decline of autonomous cities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Natural law and Patrimonial law also constricted economic growth.
Nonetheless, great empirical variation across nations existed. Weber addresses singular empirical variations in Germany, France, England, and the American colonies. Puritanism’s sects and churches, as well as the “modern economic ethos,” assisted expansion of the American economy, as did Franklin’s “spirit of capitalism.” A complex route existed in England. Logical-formal law in Germany assisted economic growth, as did Common law in England. Weber again offers multiple cross-nation comparisons in order to isolate the uniqueness of each empirical case. To him, each “empirical variation” both manifested “modern Western rationalism” and diverged from its ideal-typical form.
