Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

How did a Christian civilization that once condemned usury and treated commerce with suspicion come to embrace the pursuit of profit as a virtue? Tawney’s 1926 study traces that shift across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, following the way religious teaching on wealth, work, and social duty loosened its grip as modern economic life took shape. Building on and arguing with Max Weber’s account of Protestantism and capitalism, he shows how the medieval idea of economic activity bound by moral rules gave way to the notion of the market as a law unto itself. It remains a landmark of economic history and a bracing piece of moral argument. Available as a free PDF and EPUB.