Sociology

The argument in discussion deals with one of the most reflective change in the history of mankind. Societies in Western Europe and in other parts of the world over 100 years ago had been living and surviving through producing commodity goods.  They started consuming what they produced, once trade routes were shutdown due to which very little exchange was taking place and most of it in the form of barter.  The transformation that we are discussing here is of a society, where people owning the basic resources exploited peasants for power and position, into a Capitalist society where accumulation of wealth is how these societies develop and grow.

The basic aim of the feudalistic societies of the early Western era was to maximize their power and their hold on to their slaves or peasants. This was shown through their desire to increase the feudal rent as much as they possibly could. Feudalist societies did not wish to increase their holding or rent in order to get the product, produced by the peasant labor, to the market where it could be sold. Although this was the way for them to actually receive the rent, it was due their desire to hold on to maximum power and position in the society against their competitors that they forced further control on their labor and focused on earning as much as they could through rent. One could call it a status symbol for the Feudal lords in a very disparate society. (Rodney Hilton, the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism, pg 114)

The increase in the rent seeking behavior of the feudal lords was also serving another purpose. Their lifestyle demanded from them to raise funds through loans and other sources and to close the gap between their expenditures their only hope was to increase the return they expected from the produce. This increased the burden on their peasants to produce in such quantities that would enable them to manage the increasing demands of their controllers demand for higher rents. It was also due to the increase in trade in the foreign and local markets that the owners demanded higher rents form the producers. (Rodney Hilton, the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism, pg 115)

Marx pointed out that the early economic growth and progress was a result of this rent seeking behavior which led to the peasants working harder to produce surplus and became the engine of economic change. This drive for surplus production of commodity also led to the growth of international exchange and the development of commercial cities like Venice and Bruges. This also marked the start of industrialization and hence Capitalism. Therefore we can say that the growth of such centers and capitalistic societies was a result of the struggle of the peasants in order to satisfy the rent seeking nature of the owners during the feudalist era in the tenth or eleventh century.

However this development not only increased production but also increased the disparity between the rich and the poor. It wasnt just the difference in the gap but difference in the kinds of rich and poor that emerged in the fourteenth century when the revolt took place. There came a paradigm shift after the revolt that made the stimulus of market as the prime mover rather than the stimulus of rent which led to capitalistic farming and hence a socio-economic change within the society. The power of the ones in control began to diminish slowly and the decline of feudalism became more and more inevitable. (Rodney Hilton, the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism, pg 116)

This shows why Paul Sweezy, who based his non-Marxist view on the works of Pirenne, believed that capitalism was developed due to the growth of local and foreign markets and trade in Europe in between the 14th-17th century.

Provide a critical comparative account of Marxs and Webers theses on the origin of capitalism.

The question in discussion is how Max Weber and Karl Marx view capitalism and its origin and how they disagree on the essentials of the theory such as the dynamics and origin of capitalistic societies. In a nutshell, Karl Marx viewed capitalism and the history if it throughout the societies with an economic viewpoint. In contrast, Webers thesis stated that the start of capitalism could be seen in the cultural traits of Calvinism and Puritanism, a more religious perspective.

In the theory of Karl Marx, he believed that the rise of capitalism took place with the fall of feudalism, where the formers diminishing power led to the freedom of the elements of the latter. He stated that that the origins of capitalism could be seen from the fact that the producer of the good found the power to have a free will and work for the market that is, become a wage laborer, only when he was able to detach himself from the owners of the resources. 

He believed that the accumulation of capital would always convert into variable components that create the surplus in the first place and will increase the demand for labor and the fund for their subsistence with the same rate as the wealth itself is increasing hence. (Marx.K, a critique of Poltical Economy)

Since he believed that the capital each year grew and was added to the previously accumulated wealth and that the new market would keep on developing there would come a time when the demand for labor would exceed the supply raising wages and hence more power to the producer.

This also applied to the industrial capitalists who did not only do that but also had to fight from those who owned all the resources of production. In his view capitalism was more forced than a natural cycle of progression. The oppression of labor, the demand for more production, the emergence of new markets and finally, the outbreak of producers to be free led to the origin of capitalism. (Marx.K, The so Called Primitive Accumulation, chap26, pg 259)

 Max Webers most famous work is his essay ineconomic sociology,The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism which gave another, little less materialistic view of capitalism, which stated that the attributes of religion especially Protestantism, had a major influence over the origin of capitalism and bureaucracy in the Western society. He believed that capitalism evolved in Europewhen the Protestant work ethic and its belief about hard work and payoff engaged a very large population to work in a secular state. It also encouraged them to develop their own businesses and push them towards trade so that they could use the wealth accumulated from such activities for future.

He did not believe although, that this was the only reason why capitalism started, but stated that this was one of the many reasons of its origin. He also believed that Karls view as capitalism being a solely material purpose of a mans quest to accumulate wealth was not accurate and that there were many other unexplainable elements that led to such an economic structure. There fore he believed that capitalism emerged in a more peaceful way where people believed in hard work and drove themselves to do better and become better as Protestants believed.

 Karl Marx believed that capitalism, and all other aspects mankind could be defined through economics, therefore he did not believe that it existed throughout History. Webers Theory can be better understood by looking at what he quoted in his book said by Benjamin Franklin
Remember, thattime is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckonthatthe only expense he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides. ... Remember, that money is theprolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again is seven and threepence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds

This shows that he believed that it wasnt just greed but more a moral believe of the people that hard work pays off and God substantiates that good virtue always leads to success and a better life.