MARX, SOMBART, WEBER AND THE DEBATE ABOUT THE GENESIS OF MODERN CAPITALISM

The California School denies that the origin of modern capitalism was rooted in older European traditions, since the major Asian and European empires and nations were at comparable levels of development around 1700. The theories of Marx, Sombart and Weber are leading examples of the opposite view. They differentiate between different forms of precapitalist and early capitalist development in order to identify the factors which prevented or helped to initiate the industrial revolution. To ignore these factors is to belittle the importance of persistent cultural differences.