What are the two ways to sprout capitalism in western Europe?

1, handicraft differentiation, developed the capitalist road from the handicraft production field. In Venice, Florence and other cities, craftsmen are constantly divided in the competition of commodity production. A few wealthy workshop owners who have accumulated a lot of wealth have added helpers and apprentices, making them become hired workers instead of directly participating in the production process, becoming capitalists who exploit workers for a living, while a large number of apprentices, helpers and some bankrupt workshop owners have become hired workers.

2. Commercial capital enters the production field, which is the way to transform into production capital. The emergence of the merchant class accelerated the development of capitalism. With the mastery of market conditions, businessmen provide raw materials and buy products to small producers in cottage industries, and they become a package of buyer capitalists, while small producers gradually lose their independence and become hired workers who receive piece-rate wages.

Later, capitalist contractors gathered scattered small producers and established capitalist handicraft workshops with centralized production. Centralized handicraft workshops embody the complete capitalist relations of production. The capital formed by these two ways has the same characteristics: both of them are produced on the basis of the development of commodity economy to a higher level, representing the wage labor production relations of a certain production scale.

Extended data:

The economic development is unbalanced. The financial and monetary measures taken by western capitalist countries to get rid of the financial and debt crisis have not been effective so far. The reason is mainly caused by several structural "traps": First, the financial trap. In recent years, the financial sector in western countries has expanded excessively, and the financial industry has expanded several times faster than the growth rate of the real economy, accumulating unprecedented risks.

There is something wrong with the political system. First, it is difficult to select talents in western-style elections. The western electoral system is not a ability-oriented but a performance-oriented approach to the growth and development of politicians. Whoever can put forward beautiful and loud slogans and win the favor of voters will be on stage. The leaders elected by this electoral system often lack practical ruling experience, "winning the election" rather than "being competent", and there are more politicians than politicians.

The social integration mechanism is "ineffective". The first is the rise of extreme social thoughts. In recent years, the mainstream western society has a conservative tendency on issues such as trade, immigration and religion. In some European countries, right-wing parties are growing. For example, the far-right British National Party won a seat in the European Parliament for the first time.

People's Daily-People's Daily: Observation and Reflection on the Predicament of Western Capitalism