The Dawn of Profit: The Genesis of Capitalism (c. 1500–1750) Part 1 of 4 In the grand theater of human history, the period from 1500 to 1750 marks the audacious debut of capitalism, a system that slunk out from the shadows of feudalism and mercantilism with the swagger of a merchant who’s just sold a shipful of spices at a 300% markup. This was no gentle evolution but a seismic shift, driven by the relentless pursuit of profit through the accumulation and reinvestment of capital. Picture a world where land, labor, and even dreams were commodified, where the clink of coins drowned out the clatter of feudal plowshares, and where merchants, with their ledgers and ambitions, became the unlikely architects of a new economic order. The Commercial Revolution flung open the gates of global trade, financial innovations like double-entry bookkeeping and joint-stock companies greased the wheels of commerce, and enclosures in England turned peasants into wage laborers faster than you could s...