The Wages of Intimate and Anonymous Capitalism

The spirit of capitalism is a sentimental reflection of its practice, and the practice envisioned by the likes of Adam Smith and other early proponets of capitalism assumed an intimate commerce among friends and neighbors. With the advent of the industrial revolution and the development of the modern corporation, commercial relationships increasingly became anonymous, with the result that the sentimal forces that once shaped capitalism withered, leaving a crude, uncomplicated form of self-interest in their place.Drawing on economic history, classic works of political economy, and personal interviews, I tell the story of these two competing visions of capitalism, the intimate capitalism of the old world (a phenomenon still visible in small town America, today) and the anonymous capitalism of contemporary commerce.