Plato

[Maureen Anderson]

Carrol:
>A pure speculation: the notion of an Athenian (or other ancient)
>capitalism seeped into Marxism from Weber, and is still promulgated 
>by many for whom "Weber" is a swear word. The late Jim Blaut seems 
>to have followed Weber in identifying capitalism with any sort of 
>profit-seeking commerce.

Kelly:
>except, of course, that weber doesn't claim this at all.

No he doesn't.  In fact he spills a lot of ink explaining why 
commerce in other eras wasn't like capitalism.  But it's his 
enframing of the whole issue in terms of factors that "hindered" the 
free development of markets that Carrol's presumably referring to. 
As if markets and commerce and cities have built-in momentum in the 
direction of capitalism if not otherwise impeded.

Anyway Weber contains multitudes, and both proponents and critics of 
the commercialization model have some Weber in their arsenal.  I know 
the antiquity anti-commercialization arguments through Finley and 
Polanyi, both of whom were influenced by Weber's work, especially his 
analysis of the role of status in non-capitalist societies.

Maureen