Title: Capitalismus: Alea iacta est

Authors: Ioannis-Dionysios Salavrakos

Addresses: European Parliament, Rue Wiertz 60, 1047 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: The paper argues that capitalism can be analysed in six different periods. These are: the period of commercial capitalism (1500-1750), the periods of the first and second industrial revolutions (1750-1860 and 1870-1914 respectively); the period of capitalist crisis, associated with the world wars, the rise of Communism and the Great crisis of 1929 (1914-1945), the fifth period of modern capitalist development (1945-1973) and the final period the new phase of capitalist crisis (from 1973 until today). The paper argues in the previous five phases the nexus between technological and scientific change, the rise of financial institutions, which promoted economic growth by financing real investments, the increase of labour force due to demographic rise, the increase of trade volumes and the entrepreneurial/managerial transformation all together allowed the capitalist system to bypass both systemic as well as financial crises. However, the current crisis is different and may not by bypassed.

Keywords: capitalism; financial crisis; economic cycles; commercial capitalism; industrial revolution; capitalist crisis; modern capitalist development; technological change; scientific change; financial institutions; labour force; demographics; entrepreneurship; managerial transformation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2013.057208

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2013 Vol.6 No.4, pp.367 - 399

Published online: 30 Dec 2013 *

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