Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction

Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction James Fulcher Oxford University Press Oxford 2004 139 pp. ISBN 0-19280218-6 £6.99

Review DOI 10.1108/02686900510574629

One might be inclined to write a very short review! This is part of an excellent and growing series initially around philosophers and history, but showing signs of spreading to anything and everything, so there may eventually be more topics of interest to the subject of business. This volume is written by a sociologist. The book commences with the first expedition of the English East India Company of 1601. It then turns to the eighteenth and nineteenth century cotton industry and Robert Owen, before turning to financial capitalism. The insight that there were different types of capitalism in the early days, ploughing their own distinctive furrows, is one of the valuable emphases of the book. Indeed, maybe the title of the text should be Capitalisms, but this excites immediate computer spell check. Merchant...