Capitalism created the first global economy based on economics rather than politics

Evidence

What he refers to as “world economies”—networks of economic connections of a geographically extensive sort—have existed prior to modern times, but these were notably different from the world system that has developed over the past three or four centuries. Earlier world economies were usually centred upon large imperial states and never covered more than certain regions in which the power of these states was concentrated. The emergence of capitalism, as Wallerstein analyses it, ushers in a quite different type of order, for the first time genuinely global in its span and based more on economic than political power—the “world capitalist economy.” — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 173

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s frame: capitalism as an abstract global ‘system’ that individuals trust/defer to without facework — a system-trust economy. — connects to: A capitalist society is a society only because it is a nation-state — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 153; Capitalism’s non-political nature enabled its global penetration beyond state reach — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 174; Capitalism’s global spread spawned nationalism as its historical cost — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 370 (+14 more)
• SEED: Angle: pre-modern ‘world economies’ were politically centered and bounded; capitalism decouples economic trust from any single moral/political authority — a direct parallel to how Stevens’s trust in Darlington is institution-dependent.

Related

• Capitalism’s non-political nature enabled its global penetration beyond state reach (similarity 0.89)
• The economy never operates free of political and ideological practices (similarity 0.83)
• Mass culture and mass markets were integral to corporate capitalism’s ascendancy (similarity 0.83)
• A capitalist society is a society only because it is a nation-state (similarity 0.82)
• Modern capitalism emerged only within the framework of the evolving western state (similarity 0.81)
• Competing state-capitalist blocs destabilized the global economy and caused World War II. (similarity 0.80)
• Early capitalism enclosed bourgeoisies within rival national economies rather than a world system. (similarity 0.79)
• Modern capitalism created two overlapping worlds of territorial states and dispersed private property. (similarity 0.79)
• Thatcherism was a global phase of capitalism disguised as nationalism (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism’s global spread spawned nationalism as its historical cost (similarity 0.79)
• A genuine world economy would dissolve the nation state (similarity 0.79)
• Gramsci’s state concept explains how capitalism became a whole way of social life (similarity 0.78)
• Global capitalism is hierarchical, not divided into monolithic blocs (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s global spread spawned nationalism as its historical cost #complicates (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 370
• Capitalism’s global unification paradoxically generated nationalism as fragmentation #complicates (0.50)
• Fourteenth-century crises determined which bourgeoisies would create global capitalism #qualifies (0.45)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them #complicates (0.40) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205