Talk:Emergence of early capitalism

I tried to edit this into intelligible English. Still, the link to the tulip crash is unclear; the reference should be explained fully or removed.

I do have a more serious problem with this article, however. My problem is not with the article as such -- it could be incorporated into the body of the article on capitalism, or an article on The netherlands. But if this remains an independent article, if must be retitled "The Emergence of Capitalism in Modern Europe." Will Durant (I know, not current and not an expert) described "capitalists" and "capitalist practices" in the Roman Empire! Noe, I do not know if Roman historians agree with this characterization. I also know that some scholars consider capitalism to be an entirely recent phenomena. My point is, that there may be debate over when "capitalism" first emerged, and it may be imprecise to call the Netherlands in the sixteenth century "early" capitalism. Also, any dating of the emergence of capitalism depends on a definition of capitalism. There have been many. For Marx it has to do with the rise of a labor market. For Wallerstein, trade on a global scale. I imagine there are many others. This article has to be specific. Finally, I am sure there were practices in the 16th century that can be tied to the emergence of capitalism (for crissake, how could one leave Weber out of this?) that should be included.

I am not an historian, let alone an economic historian, but I hope some people out there will take this comment as an invitation to add to this article appropriately. Slrubenstein

This is awful. How do you not mention the Italian City States in an article about the beginnings of capitalism? Nothing of the Medicis, their church relationship providing wealth, etc.? Florence was the first really capitalist place on earth!

Omissions
Indeed. Since pre-Roman times goods have been bought and sold on markets throughout Europe. and the milestones listed in the article are not particularly significant. Rnt20 13:25, 17 November 2005 (UTC)