Capitalism and Freedom in Pre-modern Thought

This chapter studies the somewhat darker origins of liberalism by situating continental economic literature during the age of capitalism’s ascendancy (1450s–1850s) within the idiosyncratic conditions provided on the ground in early modern Europe. Most European regions, as seen in Chapter 4 , remained decidedly agrarian and non-urban, shot-through with feudal systems of allocation, modes of production and forms of extraction which created a very specific institutional framework for individual economic activity. Individual freedom (or the absence of it) was embedded within social networks and feudal webs of power, coercion. With native nobilities and feudal grand seigneurs enjoying wide-ranging claims on the economic, social and emotional resources of the individual, numerous freedoms in the plural infringed on concepts of possessive individualism and competitive laissez-faire which shaped during that time and which became important for the unfolding of capitalism. Early modern economic writers, in this process, framed and re-framed the question of freedoms in the plural, especially the privileges enjoyed by the nobility and other market infringements, when making their dynamic models of economy work. Conditions for capitalism and competitive markets—economic freedom in the modern way—had to be created from scratch, designed and managed. They could not be found, or assumed (as much of the modern literature does) to just exist in situ, or continue to exist automatically once established. Capitalism and freedom needed careful management. Whilst societal premises were different, conclusions reached by Cameralists such as Johann Heinrich Justi or, in Scotland, Sir James Steuart, about markets and price formation were surprisingly often very similar to those used to the present day. Thus, we have, in Cameralism and mercantilism, yet another origin point for modern ideologies regarding the nature and role of markets, especially in terms of their positive connotation for capitalism and economic development.