Braudel on "Capitalist" and "Capitalism"

Curtiss Leung bofftagstumper at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 12 21:46:38 PST 2000


Hi Rakesh:

You wrote:


> It was due to his attempt at historical
> specification in terms of relations of
> production that Marx would speak of a capitalist
> mode of production instead of simply capitalism
> which often often conjures images of the exchange
> process, the stock market, and the power of money.
> While there may be passing references to
> Kapitalismus by Blanc or Prodhoun, wouldn't
Sombart's
> Quintessence of Capitalism be responsible for the
> popularization of the word?

Braudel cites a book by Sombart, _der moderne Kapitalismus_ (which I guess must be same text you mention) as launching the term into academic circles. And when you note that "capitalism" "conjures images of the exchange process" rather than a mode of production, I suppose that might have been something that restrained Marx from using the term -- either that, or he couldn't imagine his "vulgar economists" becoming even more shameful than they were in his day. -- Curtiss __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com



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