Jewish Invention Myths: The Term ‘Capitalism’

Jewish invention myths sometimes relate to terms and/or concepts; one such is the term ‘Cardiac Countershock’ that I have previously debunked (1) but another is the term and concept of ‘Capitalism’.

‘Christian Learning’ for example claims that:

‘With the end of feudalism in the 15th century, different forms of capitalism began to become the economic system most used in the western world. This system runs on profits made in a market economy and it is still used today all over the world.

It was the Jewish political economist David Ricardo who first used the term “capitalism” in his published 1817 writing titled “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.” In its modern form capitalism is more often attributed to Karl Marx, of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, who referred to the economic system more than 2,600 times in his 1867 writings, “Das Kapital.”’ (2)

This is typically bad researched nonsense since as Braudel explains:

‘The Hollandische Mercurius uses it once in 1633, and again in 1654. In 1699, a French memorandum notes that a new tax levied by the States-General of the United Provinces distinguishes between ‘capitalists’, who will pay 3 florins, and other people who will pay 30 sols. So, the word had already been in use for some time before Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote to one of his friends in 1759: ‘I am not a great lord nor a capitalist; I am poor and happy.’ (3)

Other examples include Etienne Clavier’s use of ‘capitalists’ in his 1788 ‘De la foi publique envers les créanciers de l'état’ (4) and Arthur Young’s use of it in his 1792 ‘Travels in France’. (5)

David Ricardo first used ‘capitalists’ in his 1817 ‘Principles of Political Economy and Taxation’ and not before; so we can thus easily see that David Ricardo did not invent the term ‘capitalists’ nor ‘capitalism’ but rather was using an extant term in the same way that it had been used for nearly two hundred years!

So no jews didn’t invent the term or the concept of ‘capitalism’.

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-term-cardiac

(2) https://www.christianlearning.com/jewish-inventions/

(3) Fernand Braudel, 1979, ‘Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century’, Vol. II, 1st Edition, Book Club Associates: London, pp. 234-235

(4) https://books.google.com/books?id=ESMVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false, p. 19

(5) James Murray, 1893, ‘A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles’, Vol. 2, Clarendon Press: Oxford, p. 93