Generally speaking, capitalism is an economic or economic sociology system. Under this system, most of the means of production are owned by individuals, and the value is created by wage labor.
Chinese name
capitalism
Foreign name
capitalism
seed
revive
trait
Based on private ownership
ruling class
middle class
quick
navigate by water/air
change
basic feature
history
ideology
defectiveness
development direction
All categories
Typical country
The origin of a word
The Latin word "capital" comes from the sale and possession of animals, while the word "capitalism" comes from the original Indo-European word "kaput", which means "head". "Head" is a way to measure wealth in ancient Europe: the more "head" cows a person owns, the richer he is. Movable property (meaning goods, animals or slaves) and cattle also come from kaput. From 12 to 13 century, the word "capital" began to be used to describe funds, goods inventory, money quantity, or profits brought by money.
David ricardo used the word "capitalist" many times in 18 17 Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. The English poet samuel taylor coleridge also mentioned this word in 1823, and Pierre-Joseph proudhon also used the word "capitalist" to refer to the owner of capital in 1867. On the other hand, Karl Marx and friedrich engels used "capitalist" to describe private individuals with capital in Das Kapital. Marx did not use the word capitalism directly, but used "capitalist mode of production", which appeared more than 2600 times in Das Kapital. But later research confirmed that Marx used the word capitalism in his manuscript.
The first person to use the word "capitalism" was the British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, who used the word to indicate the ownership of a large amount of capital, not a production system. However, the first person to use the word "capitalism" to describe the production system was the German economist Wiener Sambat, who wrote "The Jews and Modern Capitalism" 1902. Max Weber, a close friend and colleague of Song Bart, also used this word in Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism 1904.
change
The definition of capitalism in the dictionary has been changing. For example, the Century Dictionary published by 1909 defines capitalism as a country with capital or property; Capital possession. Many capitals are concentrated in the hands of a few people; And the power or influence on large or joint capital.
As for the contemporary definition, it may be because of the influence of philosophical and ideological debates in19th century, and it is defined as "economic system" (as used by Wiener Sambat and Max Weber). The definition of capitalism in Merieult's dictionary is: "An economic system in which an individual or a company owns capital and property, the investment is made by an individual rather than the state, and the price, production and sales of products are mainly determined by the free market." However, the British Oxford English Dictionary (version 1987) defines it as: "the situation of occupying capital; The identity of the capitalist; Support the system of capitalism. " This difference from the definition of American dictionaries may also be caused by different ideological and etymological explanations.