>kelley wrote:
>
> >
> > Weber follows Marx in this, except for two components. Both argued that
> > capitalism requires a pool of formally free but economically propertyless
> > labor; the sale of factors of production on the market; and the
> > concentration of factors of prod in the hands of entrepreneurs.
>
>This won't do. We are talking about the *origins* of capitalism
no, you are. that's what you care about. i do not. neither did weber.
>-- and
>if you list these factors as "requirements" in this sense, then you are saying
>that capitalism has to exist before capitalism could exist.
do you understand the difference between advancing a causal theory and elaborating conditions? good. weber isn't and never has advanced a theory as to the origins of capitalism.
i have read the work of which you speak.