Who invented capitalism? With the Reformation, as Max Weber claimed, or during the Catholic Middle Ages? A new academic study analyzing the inventories of the Vatican Chapter suggests that the origins of capitalism date back as early as the 1300s.

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The origins of capitalism? In Rome, during the Catholic Middle Ages.

Capitalism was far from being a secondary element in the rise of Western civilization. Indeed, even Karl Marx acknowledged that capitalism “created more massive and colossal forces than all previous generations put together”¹K. Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 1848.

Unfortunately, in popular culture, Max Weber’s thesis that capitalism originated with the Protestant Reformation is still prevalent. However, in academic circles, the situation is quite different.

This is highlighted once again by a highly academic and specialized text (not exactly aimed at the general public) authored by Etienne Hubert, a senior member of the French National Centre for Scientific Research and a former director of the Paris School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.

The book is titled Anatomy of a Document: Writing the Houses of St. Peter in the Vatican in the Mid-14th Century (Viella, 2024). It examines the development of administrative writing in ecclesiastical settings and the rational management of land and real estate in the medieval economy.

 

The Study on the Vatican Chapter’s Inventories

Hubert specifically analyzes the inventories of the Chapter of St. Peter, established in the 11th century to ensure the liturgical and sacramental care of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

The study of inventories has become an area of increasing interest among modern historians as it sheds light on the administration of ecclesiastical and secular properties.

Historian Marina Montesano, a professor at the University of Messina, noted that the author focuses particularly on a 1350 inventory compiled during the second Jubilee of 1350.

The document recorded both movable and immovable assets, but it also projected future economic trends. This approach, as the French researcher Hubert points out, reflects the innovative character of the Vatican Chapter.

The French scholar highlights two main ways in which the Vatican Chapter acquired real estate: through donations and legacies, and via investment purchases.

Regarding testamentary donations, over 100 houses in Rome were bequeathed to the Chapter between the late 13th and early 15th centuries. This ensured the Chapter not only a vast geographical distribution of its properties but also remarkable capabilities in economic administration and management.

 

The Origins of Capitalism in the Middle Ages

Marina Montesano rightly asks: “Should our understanding of the origins of capitalism become broader?”

This is precisely the argument of the renowned American sociologist Rodney Stark.

As previously mentioned (and also highlighted in a recent review of Federico Rampini’s latest book), the widely popular thesis of German sociologist Max Weber—that Western capitalism derived from the Protestant Reformation—is largely discredited in academic circles, even if it persists at the popular level.

One reason for this misconception, according to Stark (himself not a Catholic), lies in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He wrote that “the new emphasis on asceticism” appeared to position the Church against commerce and banking systems, leading to the erroneous claim that Protestantism birthed capitalism. In reality, “capitalism was already fully developed in Europe centuries before Luther was born”²R. Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, Lindau, 2012, pp. 429, 430.

As early as the 9th century, monastic estates were engaged in advanced commercial activities that “generated a sophisticated banking system within a developing free market, thus giving rise to capitalism in all its glory”³R. Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, Lindau, 2012, p. 321.

Supporting the medieval origins of capitalism, Lester K. Little, professor emeritus of medieval history at Smith College, observed that by the 13th century, all major Catholic theologians had already extensively discussed “the principal aspects of emerging capitalism”.

Their discussions reflected “generally favorable conceptions, in stark contrast to attitudes that had dominated for six or seven centuries prior”⁴L.K. Little, Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe, Cornell University Press, 1978, p. 181.