Is “capitalism” a misnomer? : on Marx’s “capitalism” and Knight’s “civilization”

Ellerman, David P. (author)

The name “capitalism” derives from Marx’s false analogy between medieval land ownership and the “ownership of the means of production.” However, unlike medieval land, capital goods can be rented out, e.g., by Frank Knight’s entrepreneur, and then the capital owner does not hold those management or product rights. What then is the characteristic institution in our civilization? It is the voluntary renting of workers. What then is the relationship between Classical Liberalism, the dominant philosophy behind Economics, and a lifetime labour contract? Frank Knight had plenty to say about the doctrine of inalienable rights which disallows such contracts.

• Language: English
• Keywords: capitalism, ownership of the means of production, employment relation, contractual lifetime servitude, inalienable rights
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1-13
• Numbering: Vol. 32, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179115
• ISSN on article: 1469-5936
• DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2024.2364653
• Publication date in RUL: 05.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: The European journal of the history of economic thought
• Shortened title: Eur. j. hist. econ. thought
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1469-5936
• COBISS.SI-ID: 521358105

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• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.