Capitalism, as a social system, where production is organised for exchange in the market for profit.
The novelty of this form of social organisation, historically specific.
Different accounts of the rise of capitalism
Commercialisation model: assumes rational individuals, markets as arenas of opportunity, associates capitalism with cities, continuity in history, bourgeois as the agent of change.
Critiques of the commercialisation model
Karl Polanyi: from markets to the market society
The rise of the market society in historically specific conditions and the necessary intervention of the state
The transition from feudalism to capitalism
The dynamics of agrarian relations: the agrarian origins of capitalism.
