Capitalism timeline

Mercantile capitalism

1200

Merchants used to ask for loans in order to buy a product like fruits or jewels, then resell it at a higher price to pay back that loan, often with interests, they asked for before. This type of commercialization and trade of products was known as "mercantile capitalism", which become popular from the Chinese people to the Indian Ocean Trade network, to Muslims caravans trade merchants.

16th century: Rise of the merchant class

1500

With the fall of feudalism, a new idea of foreign trade started to be established, so a new class of merchant capitalist appeared. “These new merchants amassed great fortunes by purchasing foreign goods cheaply and selling them on at huge profits to Europe’s aristocracy” (SOLFED.org, 2012) For this reason, European countries established colonies in order to boost their share of trade in order to become rich.