Reddit reviews History of Economic Analysis: With a New Introduction

Good list, but no love for Schumpeter? Not for the faint of heart, but it is comprehensive.

This is entirely obfuscated.

I think this may be a good and flexible way of looking at this issue from one side, however we are just trying to come up with a definition of capitalism we can work with - rather than trying to recognize the anthropological network of labor division.

I think you miss a key point to the argument when you ask when did using money begin to organize civilization.

It is important to distinguish money from capital which you didn't do. This is an easy to fall into trap. Money is just one form of capital. Marx's landmark book does a fairly good job at describing the different forms, while Joseph Shumpaeter goes further in his history of economic analysis.

I suggest reviewing your basic economics texts if you have gone through the field.

Beyond that, our best records show that civilization was fairly well organized well before money came along.


I'm also not quite sure what your point with the military is. There were very few applications of military models to civilian life prior to the polities of Greece simply because there were few societies who were not thoroughly integrated with the military hierarchy. I think your military history is lacking in some key areas.

I think a history of capital allocation and distribution, history of money and a basic economics re-read may be a good place to get a refresher. Also check out this paper (85 pages) to get a better feel for how the military "model" has applied over centuries.