马克思、桑巴特、韦伯与现代资本主义起源争论

Marx,Sombart,Weber and the Debate about the Genesis of Modern Capitalism

加州学派否认现代资本主义起源于古老的欧洲传统,因为主要的亚洲帝国和欧洲国家在1700年前后处于相似的发展水平;马克思、桑巴特和韦伯的理论则持相反立场。他们区分了不同形式的前资本主义和早期资本主义发展,借此来找出阻碍或推动工业革命的因素。忽视这些因素就等于贬低长期文化差异的重要性。

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.