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The Capitalism Portal

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.

Economists, historians, political economists and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include laissez-faire or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capitalism and welfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees of free markets, public ownership, obstacles to free competition and state-sanctioned social policies. The degree of competition in markets and the role of intervention and regulation as well as the scope of state ownership vary across different models of capitalism. The extent to which different markets are free and the rules defining private property are matters of politics and policy. Most of the existing capitalist economies are mixed economies that combine elements of free markets with state intervention and in some cases economic planning.

Market economies have existed under many forms of government and in many different times, places and cultures. Modern capitalist societies developed in Western Europe in a process that led to the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist systems with varying degrees of direct government intervention have since become dominant in the Western world and continue to spread. Economic growth is a characteristic tendency of capitalist economies. (Full article...)

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The slate industry in Wales began during the Roman period when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, modern Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, from when it expanded rapidly and reached its peak output in the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in north-west Wales. These included the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, the Dinorwig Quarry near Llanberis, the Nantlle Valley quarries and Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was mined rather than quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. The Great Depression and the Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles, resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on a much reduced scale. (Full article...)

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Friedrich Hayek, (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek and frequently referred to as F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian and British economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for his "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and ... penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena".

Hayek was a major social theorist and political philosopher of the twentieth century, and his account of how changing prices communicate information which enables individuals to co-ordinate their plans is widely regarded as an important achievement in economics.

Hayek served in World War I and said that his experience in the war and his desire to help avoid the mistakes that had led to the war led him to his career. Hayek lived in Austria, Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and became a British subject in 1938. He spent most of his academic life at the London School of Economics (LSE), the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg.

In 2011, his article "The Use of Knowledge in Society" was selected as one of the top 20 articles published in The American Economic Review during its first 100 years. (Full article...)

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“

Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently employed in purchasing such lands as were to be sold, of which a great part would frequently be uncultivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of becoming country gentlemen, and when they do, they are generally the best of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ his money chiefly in profitable projects, whereas a mere country gentleman is accustomed to employ it chiefly in expence. The one often sees his money go from him and return to him again with a profit; the other, when once he parts with it, very seldom expects to see any more of it. Those different habits naturally affect their temper and disposition in every sort of business. A merchant is commonly a bold, a country gentleman a timid undertaker. The one is not afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon the improvement of his land when he has a probable prospect of raising the value of it in proportion to the expence. The other, if he has any capital, which is not always the case, seldom ventures to employ it in this manner. If he improves at all, it is commonly not with a capital, but with what he can save out of his annual revenue. Whoever has had the fortune to live in a mercantile town situated in an unimproved country must have frequently observed how much more spirited the operations of merchants were in this way than those of mere country gentlemen. The habits, besides, of order, economy, and attention, to which mercantile business naturally forms a merchant, render him much fitter to execute, with profit and success, any project of improvement.

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— Adam Smith (1723 – 1790)
The Wealth of Nations , 1776

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General images

The following are images from various capitalism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The New York stock exchange traders' floor (1963) (from History of capitalism)
Image 2The Spinning mule, built by the inventor Samuel Crompton. (from History of capitalism)
Image 3Sir Josiah Child, an influential proponent of mercantilism. Painting attributed to John Riley. (from History of capitalism)
Image 4Cosimo de' Medici, who managed to build an international financial empire and was one of the first Medici bankers (from Capitalism)
Image 5The Watt steam engine, a steam engine fuelled primarily by coal propelled the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (from Capitalism)
Image 6The subscription room at Lloyd's of London in the early 19th century (from Capitalism)
Image 7The gold standard formed the financial basis of the international economy from 1870 to 1914. (from History of capitalism)
Image 8Robert Clive with the Nawabs of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey which began the British rule in India (from Capitalism)
Image 9The economic model of supply and demand states that the price P of a product is determined by a balance between production at each price (supply S) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand D): the diagram shows a positive shift in demand from D₁ to D₂, resulting in an increase in price (P) and quantity sold (Q) of the product. (from Capitalism)
Image 10Gustave Doré's 19th-century engraving depicted the dirty, overcrowded slums where the industrial workers of London lived. (from History of capitalism)
Image 11The Anglo-Dutch Wars were fought between the English and the Dutch for control over the seas and trade routes. (from History of capitalism)
Image 12An industrial worker among heavy steel machine parts (Kinex Bearings, Bytča, Slovakia, c. 1995–2000) (from Capitalism)
Image 13The New York Stock Exchange. (from History of capitalism)
Image 14Decaying hedges mark the lines of the straight field boundaries created by a Parliamentary Act of Enclosure. (from History of capitalism)
Image 15British East India Company 1801 (from History of capitalism)
Image 16A painting of a French seaport from 1638, at the height of mercantilism. (from History of capitalism)
Image 17Many^[quantify] analysts^[who?] assert that China is one of the main examples of state capitalism in the 21st century. (from Capitalism)
Image 18A painting of a French seaport from 1638 at the height of mercantilism (from Capitalism)
Image 19Map of a medieval manor. Notice the large commons area and the division of land into small strips. The mustard-colored areas are part of the demesne, the hatched areas part of the glebe.
William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 01923 (from History of capitalism)
Image 20Adam Smith (from Capitalism)
Image 21The Rothschild family revolutionised international finance. The Frankfurt terminus of the Taunus Railway was financed by the Rothschilds and opened in 1840 as one of Germany's first railways. (from History of capitalism)
Image 22The New York stock exchange traders' floor (1963) (from Capitalism)
Image 2319th-century Great Britain become the first global economic superpower, because of superior manufacturing technology and improved global communications such as steamships and railroads. (from History of capitalism)
Image 24The Industrial Workers of the World poster "Pyramid of Capitalist System" (1911) (from Capitalism)
Image 25The gold standard formed the financial basis of the international economy from 1870 to 1914. (from Capitalism)

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Did you know

... that the first branch of the Boulder Public Library was built in 1906 with $15,000 donated by Andrew Carnegie?
... that Arkwright House, Preston, has been called one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution?
... that the village of Worsley is centred around the coal mines that helped kickstart the industrial revolution in nearby Manchester?

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Capitalism topics

Capitalism .. Private property .. Capitalist mode of production .. Laissez-faire .. Ludwig Von Mises .. Murray N. Rothbard .. Economic freedom .. Adam Smith .. Money .. Ronald Reagan .. American capitalism .. Criticisms of socialism .. Patent .. The Wealth of Nations .. Corporate capitalism .. Democratic capitalism .. Milton Friedman

v t e Capitalism
Aspects and perspectives
General	Anarchy of production Business cycle Centralization Competition Depression Deregulation Economic bubble Economic development Economic liberalism Economic planning Entrepreneurship Ecopreneurship Externality Financial crisis Financial Revolution Globalization History of capitalist theory Industrial Revolution Invention Market economy Market failure Merchantilism Meritocracy Multinational corporation Nationalization Oligopoly Perspectives on capitalism by school of thought Privatization Profit Property rights Recession Regulation Wage labour Wealth
Ideology	Anglo-Saxon Authoritarian Corporate Democratic Dirigist Free-market Humanistic Laissez-faire Liberal Libertarian Market Mercantilist Mixed Monopoly National Neo Neoliberal Nordic Private Raw Regulated market Regulatory Rhine Social State State-sponsored Welfare
Cultural aspects	Advertising American Dream Consumerism Decentralization Economic freedom Economic mobility Individualism Liberalism Liberty Mainstream Philanthropy Private foundation Private property Rule of law Social alienation Spontaneous order
Social aspects	Corporatism Economic inequality Employment Freedom of association Labour market flexibility Labour supply Productivity Prosperity Social venture capital Unemployment
Criticism	Anti-capitalism Critique of political economy Critique of work Market fundamentalism Marxism Wage slavery
Antithesis	Anarchism Anarcho-communism Anarcho-primitivism Anarcho-syndicalism Collectivist anarchism Communalism Communism Economic democracy Eco-socialism Free-market socialism Green anarchism Individualist anarchism Libertarian socialism Market anarchism Market socialism Mutualism Post-capitalism Post-scarcity economy Sharing economy Social anarchism Socialism Syndicalism