Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism. A Criticism of Max Weber and His School.

Abstract

This forms an interesting commentary on the widely accepted beUef in Calvinism as a stimulant to business enterprise. It suggests, very strongly indeed, that influences other than doctrinal ones determine the Calvinist's reaction to economic opportunities and stimuli.In its subtler forms, the doctrine of the Calvinist origins of "the spirit of capitalism" does not attempt to suggest that Calvinism directly EUROPEAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 16th CENTURY 49 stimulated the desire for business success; but asserts that the strong sense of "caUing" derived from Luther's and from Calvin's teaching created a sort of worldly asceticism which created the bourgeois business virtues of concentration and industry, of time-saving and punctuality, of thrift and of scrupulous honesty in the fulfilment of contracts. In this way, it is alleged, the business ethics and institutions which underly the structure of "modern capitalism" were created by the Calvinist churches.Once again, however, a glimpse at South African society is sufficient to throw doubt on the efficacy of Calvinism in promoting these particular bourgeois virtues. What is still inore to the point, however, is that Adam Smith, that wise observer of men and institutions, had more than a century and a half ago shown that these particular economic virtues were the product of social and economic conditions. In his day, he wrote, "We are more industrious than our forefathers . . . Our ancestors were idle for want of sufficient encouragement to industry ..." And surely any observant South African, considering some of the effects of our customary "Colour Bars" upon the African population, would confirm how much idleness proceeds from want of sufficient encouragement to industn'. As a matter of fact, Calvinist Scotland, in 1776, was not yet remarkable for the industry of her inhabitants. The common people of Scotland, said Adam Smith, "neither work so well, nor look so well" as the English, because they did not live so well. "Where wages are high . . . we shal? always find the worlcmen more active, diligent and expeditious, than where they are low; in England, for example, than in Scotland; in the neighbourhood of great tov/ns, than in remote country places". It was the development of industry and commerce that promoted habits of diligence; not Calvinistically inspired habits of diligence that promoted industry and commerce.Parsimony, according to Adam Smith, was encouraged by the growth of opportunities for the investment of capital saved by thrift. On the other hand, prodigal hospitality, only just dying out in the Highlands of Scotland, "seems to be common in all nations to whom commerce and manufactures are little known". Different habits of business honesty, again, might be explained by the nature and intensity of business dealings noi-mally transacted.Even before the publication of the Wealth of Nations, in his lectures to his students, Adam Smith had pointed out that: "Wherever commerce is introduced into any country probity and punctuality always accompany it...

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