TITLE:
Capitalism and Technology: An Integrated Interpretation
AUTHORS:
Theodore John Rivers
KEYWORDS:
Capitalism, Technology, Labor, Innovation, Mechanization of Time, Process, Utility
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Historical Studies,
Vol.15 No.3,
September
7,
2026
ABSTRACT: There are several factors that relate to the development of capitalism when aligned with technology which include the technical expertise of labor, the essence of innovation, the mechanization of time, the idea of process when distinguished from progress, and the pursuit of utility as a motivating mechanism. These factors present an integrated approach to capitalism not only as an economic system now evident globally but also as a societal force that may be equated morally, socially, and even metaphysically with the appearance of modernity that may be perceived in part as an extension and modification of its medieval background. It is not any technology, but Western technology that was required for the appearance of capitalism as an economic system. The historical factors discussed in this essay are unrelated to the theory that the European causes of capitalism were derived from the disappearance of feudalism that occurred in the late Middle Ages.