The Evolution of Capitalism

Abstract

The capitalist system grew out of the institution of private property, which appeared with the dawn of the agricultural age as agriculture was being developed into an economic system and a way of life. Private property caused society to be divided into two distinct social classes; the landlords, who owned most of the fertile land and were generally rich, and the peasants, who owned little or no land and were generally poor. Since land ownership enables the rich to create more wealth, and poverty denies the poor an equal opportunity to create as much wealth, a socioeconomic gap slowly developed in every agricultural society. The poor, as a consequence, were forced to work for the rich in order to survive, while the rich were able to accumulate wealth by exploiting and at times enslaving the poor and keeping them submissive. As the socioeconomic gap persisted and widened, the poor lost much of their freedom and social status, and the rich gained more freedom and social status at their expense.