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    The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism
    The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism
    The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism
    Ebook60 pages48 minutes

    The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism

    By Henri Pirenne

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism

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      Book preview

      The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism - Henri Pirenne

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism, by Henri Pirenne

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Stages in the Social History of Capitalism

      An Address Delivered at the International Congress of Historical Studies, London, April, 1913

      Author: Henri Pirenne

      Release Date: May 4, 2010 [eBook #32252]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAGES IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF CAPITALISM***

      E-text prepared by Fritz Ohrenschall, Martin Pettit,

      and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      (http://www.pgdp.net)

      Henri Pirenne

      THE STAGES IN THE

      SOCIAL HISTORY OF CAPITALISM

      THE STAGES IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF

      CAPITALISM[1]

      In the pages that follow I wish only to develop a hypothesis. Perhaps after having read them, the reader will find the evidence insufficient. I do not hesitate to recognize that the scarcity of special studies bearing upon my subject, at least for the period since the end of the Middle Ages, is of a nature to discourage more than one cautious spirit. But, on the one hand, I am convinced that every effort at synthesis, however premature it may seem, cannot fail to react usefully on investigations, provided one offers it in all frankness for what it is. And, on the other hand, the kind reception which the ideas here presented received at the International Congress of Historical Studies held at London last April, and the desire which has been expressed to me by scholars of widely differing tendencies to see them in print, have induced me to publish them. Various objections which have been expressed to me, as well as my own subsequent reflections, have caused me to revise and complete on certain points my London address. In the essential features, however, nothing has been changed.

      A word first of all to indicate clearly the point of view which characterizes the study. I shall not enter into the question of the formation of capital itself, that is, of the sum total of the goods employed by their possessor to produce more goods at a profit. It is the capitalist alone, the holder of capital, who will hold our attention. My purpose is simply to characterize, for the various epochs of economic history, the nature of this capitalist and to search for his origin. I have observed, in surveying this history from the beginning of the Middle Ages to our own times, a very interesting phenomenon to which, so it seems to me, attention has not yet been sufficiently called. I believe that, for each period into which our economic history may be divided, there is a distinct and separate class of capitalists. In other words, the group of capitalists of a given epoch does not spring from the capitalist group of the preceding epoch. At every change in economic organization we find a breach of continuity. It is as if the capitalists who have up to that time been active, recognize that they are incapable of adapting, themselves to conditions which are evoked by needs hitherto unknown and which call for methods hitherto unemployed. They withdraw from the struggle and become an aristocracy, which if it again plays a part in the course of affairs, does so in a passive manner only, assuming the rôle of silent partners. In their place arise new men, courageous and enterprising, who boldly permit themselves to be driven by the wind actually blowing and who know how to trim their sails to take advantage of it, until the day comes when, its direction changing and disconcerting their manoeuvres, they in their turn pause and are distanced by new craft having fresh forces and new directions.

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