Economists, historians, political economists, and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include laissez-faire or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capitalism, and welfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees of free markets, public ownership, obstacles to free competition, and state-sanctioned social policies. The degree of competition in markets and the role of intervention and regulation, as well as the scope of state ownership, vary across different models of capitalism. The extent to which different markets are free and the rules defining private property are matters of politics and policy. Most of the existing capitalist economies are mixed economies that combine elements of free markets with state intervention and in some cases economic planning.
Market economies have existed under many forms of government and in many different times, places, and cultures. Modern industrial capitalist societies developed in Western Europe in a process that led to the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist economies promote economic growth through accumulation of capital, however a business cycle of economic growth followed by recession is a common characteristic of such economies. (Full article...)
The slate industry in Wales began during the Roman period when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, modern Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, from when it expanded rapidly and reached its peak output in the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in north-west Wales. These included the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, the Dinorwig Quarry near Llanberis, the Nantlle Valley quarries and Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was mined rather than quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. The Great Depression and the Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles, resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on a much reduced scale. (Full article...)
Richard Cantillon (1680s – May 1734) was an Irish-French economist and author of Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général (Essay on the Nature of Trade in General), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of political economy". Although little information exists on Cantillon's life, it is known that he became a successful banker and merchant at an early age. His success was largely derived from the political and business connections he made through his family and through an early employer, James Brydges. During the late 1710s and early 1720s, Cantillon speculated in, and later helped fund, John Law's Mississippi Company, from which he acquired great wealth. However, his success came at a cost to his debtors, who pursued him with lawsuits, criminal charges, and even murder plots until his death in 1734.
Essai is considered the first complete treatise on economics, with numerous contributions to the science. These contributions include: his cause and effect methodology, monetary theories, his conception of the entrepreneur as a risk-bearer, and the development of spatial economics. Cantillon's Essai had significant influence on the early development of political economy, including the works of Adam Smith, Anne Turgot, Jean-Baptiste Say, Frédéric Bastiat and François Quesnay. (Full article...)
With American and French Revolutions and the opening of vast pioneer countries, a substantial reversal of the trend developed, as to important sections of the world population, especially in political aspects, especially in political respects, also evidenced in the movement for universal education. But many new things of nineteenth century reversed this temporary change in attitude. Of these, the theory of evolution, the emphasis upon the biological background of the individual, and the study of sociology and social anthropology profoundly affected the importance of the individual in our habits of thought. And to these, the study of economics and economic speculation, especially of French, German and Englishsocialists, gradually contributed enormously. Then finally flowered the modern corporation and the organized labor movement, all emphasizing interdependence, cooperation, regimentation, as the essential aspects of life, as the constructive forces of civilization, until the subservience of individual to state, society, economic machinery, is the habitual attitude of mind. It has become exceedingly difficult to consider the individual. Chiefly the psychologist, the psychiatrist, the physician, the clergyman, and (to some extent) the teacher, recognize "man" as an individual, rather than as a statistical unit, in the major aspects of their work.
I am not making a plea for "individualism" as opposed to "collectivism." The extreme emphasis upon the individual in doctrinarie argument against various aspects of collective interest and action seems to me even less realistic than the reverse emphasis upon organization and collectivism. Not only socially and politically but also economically, men are more interdependent, at least in western civilization, than ever before. By reason of organized cooperation in innumerable ways, both population and the standard of living, and perhaps even the quality of living, have been greatly increased. Without such organization in society, retrogression is inevitable. Recognition of these facts, however, does not require a denial of the coexistence of the individual. It is individuals who are being organized, and the effectiveness of the group depends not only upon the scheme of grouping and function, but upon the quality of the elementary units. It is impossible in practice to disregard either aspect very far; but in general our condition of mind, our attention and interest in the problems of organization, dispose us constantly to a one-sided approach.
Image 4The economic model of supply and demand states that the price P of a product is determined by a balance between production at each price (supply S) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand D): the diagram shows a positive shift in demand from D1 to D2, resulting in an increase in price (P) and quantity sold (Q) of the product. (from Capitalism)
Image 7A painting of a French seaport from 1638 at the height of mercantilism (from Capitalism)
Image 8Gustave Doré's 19th-century engraving depicted the dirty, overcrowded slums where the industrial workers of London lived. (from History of capitalism)
Image 9An industrial worker among heavy steel machine parts (Kinex Bearings, Bytča, Slovakia, c. 1995–2000) (from Capitalism)
Image 10A painting of a French seaport from 1638, at the height of mercantilism. (from History of capitalism)
Image 21Map of a medieval manor. Notice the large commons area and the division of land into small strips. The mustard-colored areas are part of the demesne, the hatched areas part of the glebe. William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 01923 (from History of capitalism)
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