History of capitalism

Private ownership of some means of production has existed at least since the invention of agriculture. However, in feudal society much of this property was considered to be inalienable and so capital markets were not established. Some writers see medieval guilds as forerunners of the modern capitalist concern (especially through using apprentices as a kind of paid laborer); but economic activity was bound by customs and controls which, along with the rule of the aristocracy which would expropriate wealth through arbitrary fines, taxes and enforced loans, meant that profits were difficult to accumulate. By the 18th century, however, these barriers to profit were overcome and capitalism became the dominant economic system of much of the world.

In the period between the late 15th century and the late 18th century the institution of private property was brought into existence in the full, legal meaning of the term. Important contribution to the theory of property is found in the work of John Locke, who argued that the right to private property is one of natural rights. Since the Industrial Revolution much of Europe underwent a thoroughgoing economic transformation associated with the rise of capitalism and levels of wealth and economic output in the Western world have risen dramatically.

Over the course of the past five hundred years, capital has been accumulated by a variety of different methods, in a variety of scales, and associated with a great deal of variation in the concentration of economic power and wealth (Scott 2005). Much of the history of the past five hundred years is concerned with the development of capitalism in its various forms, its defense and its rejection, particularly by socialists.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution and other trade of goods and services, for profit in a competitive free market. These include factors of production such as land and other natural resources, labor and capital goods. Various theories have tried to explain what capitalism is, to justify, or critique the private ownership of capital, and to explain the operation of markets and guide the application or elimination of government regulation of property and markets.
Capitalist economic practices became institutionalized in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries, although some features of capitalist organization existed in the ancient world. Capitalism has emerged as the Western world's dominant economic system since the decline of feudalism, which eroded traditional political and religious restraints on capitalist exchange. Since the Industrial Revolution, capitalism gradually spread from Europe, particularly from Britain, across global political and cultural frontiers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, capitalism provided the main, but not exclusive, means of industrialization throughout much of the world.

The concept of capitalism has limited analytic value, given the great variety of historical cases over which it is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture. Some economists have specified a variety of different types of capitalism, depending on specifics of concentration of economic power and wealth, and methods of capital accumulation (Scott 2005). During the last century capitalism has been contrasted with centrally planned economies. Most developed countries are usually regarded as capitalist, but some are also often called mixed economies due to government ownership and regulation of production, trade, commerce, taxation, money-supply, and physical infrastructure.

Capital and capitalism are globally constituted social forms. Not surprisingly, the universalization of capitalism is one of the most distinctive features of contemporary global life. Contextually, conventional notions of capitalism and imperialism encountered in mainstream international relations accounts of globalization provide unsatisfactory explanations of universal capitalism and contemporary imperialism. The mainstream (realist/neorealist and liberal/neoliberal) approaches to international relations (IR) and international political economy (IPE) share a number of key assumptions about the nature of the world, human nature, reason, power, culture, capitalism, conflict, war, security, and the nature of role of states and individuals in historical change, differing by degree rather than by kind on the fundamentals. Those literatures also privilege state-centric thinking that equates history to a set of organic processes built around cycles of permanent inter-state rivalry, competition, force, and war in the production of culture and history. They disregard the fact that modern states and cultural institutions called nation-sates are outcomes of particular historical processes. They habitually ignore, in their accounts of world order and change, the nature, meaning and significance of social relations of production and transnational forms of class competition. Contemporary global transformation is marked by processes of restructuring and incessant innovation in science, technology, industry, and transportation; information technology, communications and finance; state institutions, drugs, money laundering, nations, labor and migration; gender, race, ethnicity, sex work, human trafficking and violence against females, and military defense industrial bases and war – all of which connect to capitalism and imperialism. A number of leading scholars are rethinking the question of world order and mapping innovative approaches to explain the seismic changes and consequences for global humanity in ways that break with conventional interpretations of social reality.

But we may also keep it in mind that capitalism is best suited for western society, and in pakistan it is implemented in its worst form---- A legend say that pakistan is created is a secure hostage or paradise of fuedals , Capatal owner and military and civil bearucracy---The best solution is to build a democratic culture-- i mean to strengthen democratic institution a strong judiciary and to introduce capital and land reforms...----With no distinctive treatment on the basis of cast, ethnic origin, religion and sex. In that case we practically observe our dream land