Chapter 8: The Theory of New Social Groups

As a system, capitalism has existed for at least several hundred years, with recognizable forms of capital and its use to support international trade dating to at least the Renaissance. Nonetheless, compared with the long history of humanity, such a short time is not enough to call capitalism the mature condition of a civilized state. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to understand capitalism as a transitional stage toward a new form of civilization. Indeed, since the word capitalism first entered common use, its status has been widely debated by scholars. In particular, the publication by Karl Marx (1818–1883 ce) and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895 ce) of the Communist Manifesto in 1848 suggested the beginning of a new stage (i.e., communism) that they expected would be gradually replaced or absorbed by capitalism.