The Capitalist Self: The Social Origins of Financial Capitalism in Early Modern England

by Craig Muldrew

In this radical reinterpretation of the Financial Revolution, Craig Muldrew redefines our understanding of capitalism as a socially constructed set of institutions and beliefs. Financial institutions, including the Bank of England and the stock market, were just one piece of the puzzle. Alongside institutional developments, changes in local credit networks involving better accounting, paper notes and increased mortgaging were even more important. Muldrew argues that, before a society can become capitalist, most of its members have to have some engagement with 'capital' as a thing – a form of stored intangible financial value. He shows how previous oral interpersonal credit was transformed into capital through the use of accounting and circulating paper currency, socially supported by changing ideas about the self which stressed individual savings and responsibility. It was only through changes throughout society that the framework for a concept like capitalism could exist and make sense.

Genres: Economics

464 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2025

Reviews

[Zander Bedingfield · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

Not terrible but boring. The intellectual history section was also methodologically very shallow and Muldrew seems hesitant to engage with scholarship outside of economic history and the new social history. For example, he talks constantly about how ideas of prudence and self-government helped to cultivate an emphasis on saving yet he never once engages Ethan Shagan’s extensive work on the idea of moderation in early modern England.