Presbyteries and Profits: Calvinism and the Development of Capitalism in Scotland, 1560 - 1707

by Gordon Marshall

Scotland is one of the few cases that meet the stringent requirements of a test of Weber's argument about the relationship between Calvinism and the economic ethos of modern capitalism. This treatise investigates Weber's theory, setting out his thesis and arguing that previous work on Weber has distorted his original ideas. After a close examination of Scottish pastoral theological material and Scots business records for the period from the Reformation to the Act of Union (1707), it concludes that for Scotland, Weber's argument is vindicated.

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 1980

About the author

Gordon Marshall CBE FBA is a sociologist and former Director of the Leverhulme Trust in England.

He was the chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) from 2000 to 2002 and vice-chancellor of the University of Reading from 2003 to 2011.

Marshall has made important contributions to interdisciplinary and cross-national comparative work in the social sciences. His main fields of research include social exclusion, equality of opportunity, distributive justice and the culture of economic enterprise, and he has written widely on these topics. His early research was focused on Max Weber and the origins of modern economies.

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the many, mostly unhelpful, area studies done to test the validity of Weber's thesis on the (ascetic) Protestant origins of modern capitalism, this one shows unusual promise. Marshall is sensitive to Weber's method and argument, and has constructed a study that attends to precisely the sort of evidence that is most critical. Scotland has traditionally been regarded as a decisive empirical falsification of Weber's thesis, but Marshall disagrees. His attempts to gain access to the motives and dispositions of his subjects are necessary for the thesis, if difficult to judge.