The Price of the World

A Global History of Capitalism

Friedrich Lenger, Daniel Steuer

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781509566815
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781509566822
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: Economics

Over the last 500 years, capitalism has produced a world that is highly interdependent and at the same time highly asymmetrical. These asymmetries were often established by violent means and are in many cases vigorously defended to this day. In his ambitious global history of capitalism, Friedrich Lenger charts the course of these developments, which have left no one unaffected – from the indigenous people of America to the silk weavers of Bengal. This is a story of flagrant wealth and extreme poverty, of violence and oppression, and of the relentless exploitation both of labour and of our planet, for which we are now paying the price.

Among the global inequalities produced by capitalism are the unequal consumption of fossil fuels and the environmental degradation that affects different parts of the world in different ways and to different extents. The indifference capitalists display towards the natural world resembles their past indifference to human suffering. The millions of slaves forced to work on American plantations until well into the nineteenth century is just one example of how oppressive labour and a capitalist economy go hand in hand.

This brilliant and wide-ranging book tells the story of the rise and triumph of capitalism from the fifteenth century to the present day and lays bare its fundamental dynamic: capitalism will never place limits on itself, underlining the fact that any restrictions have to be imposed from outside. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the modern world, the fundamental problems we face today, and the economic solutions upon which our survival as a species will depend.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter I: Merchant Capitalism and European Expansionism: From the Late Fifteenth to the Early Eighteenth Century
• Chapter II: Merchant Capitalism, Plantation Slavery, and Colonialism: From the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
• Chapter III: From Merchant Capitalism to Industrial Capitalism: The Industrial Revolution from a Global Perspective
• Chapter IV: The Second Industrial Revolution, Globalization, and the Role of Imperialism 1870–1930
• Chapter V: Planning and Development: Capitalism in Crisis, Second World War, and Cold War. From the Great Depression to the Early 1970s
• Chapter VI: New Global Value Chains, Expansion of World Trade, and the Rise of Finance Capitalism: The 1970s to the Present
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Index
• End User License Agreement