Knowra Capitalism Capitalism An economic system in which productive assets are predominantly privately owned, and production and exchange are largely organized through markets and profit-seeking.
Private property : A system of rights governing ownership, use, transfer, and exclusion from resources. Capitalist production depends on rights to own and control productive assets.
Commercial Revolution : The expansion of European trade, finance, and commercial institutions from the late Middle Ages through the eighteenth century. Growing trade and finance helped create conditions for capitalist production.
Socialism : A family of political and economic systems advocating social or collective control over significant productive resources. Socialist proposals differ over replacing or limiting private ownership and market allocation.
Economic inequality : The uneven distribution of income, wealth, or economic resources among people or groups. Differences in asset ownership and returns shape the distribution of wealth and income.
Mixed economy : An economy combining markets and private enterprise with public ownership, regulation, or provision of services. Most contemporary capitalist economies combine private markets with extensive government activity.
Markets : Institutions and processes through which buyers and sellers exchange goods, services, or assets. Prices coordinate many production and exchange decisions in capitalist economies.
Enclosure : The consolidation of common or open land into privately controlled holdings, especially in England. Enclosure reshaped landholding and pushed many people toward wage labor.
Communism : A political and economic ideal of a classless society with common ownership of productive resources. Communism proposes a classless alternative to ownership and production organized around capital.
Business cycle : Fluctuations in economic activity, including expansions and contractions over time. Investment and demand shifts can generate recurring booms and downturns in market economies.
Social market economy : A model combining market competition with social protections and public regulation. It shows one way capitalist markets can coexist with broad welfare institutions.
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