This paper examines the material and ideological conditions that gave rise to market society following the decline of the Medieval Age. Drawing on Polanyi's concept of the "great transformation," Weber's analysis of the Protestant work ethic, and supporting scholarship from Bendix, Heilbroner, and Rinehart, the paper traces how religious wars, the expansion of trade, the centralization of power, and the emergence of Protestant and capitalist ideology collectively dismantled traditional economies and reshaped social life. It discusses how urbanization, the division of labor, the rise of central banking, and class struggle all contributed to a fundamentally new social and economic order grounded in industry, material accumulation, and bureaucratic organization.
A great transformation occurred at the end of the Medieval Age, when a resurgence of classical humanism and an age of Enlightenment led the way to an industrial revolution and a restructuring of European affairs. The Old World religion gave way to a Protestant ethos that shaped the philosophies of the centuries that followed, and the rise of democratic societies and the "middle class" altered the way nations conducted business. This paper discusses the material and ideological conditions that supported this "great transformation" (Polanyi), the characterizations of the market society, the significance of the transformation, and the connection between the "Protestant work ethic" and the "spirit of capitalism" as defined by Max Weber (Bendix).
The transition from medieval to market society came about through a shifting of societal values. Trade between East and West increased as technology and the means of travel expanded. The authority previously granted to the Roman Pontiff began to be assumed by regional rulers — such as Henry VIII, who declared himself head of the Church in England. Taxation and tithes were affected as a result, and the new emphasis on wealth and luxury items in 16th-century Europe helped create the material and ideological conditions necessary for the shift to a market society. Prior to the emergence of the capitalist market society, traditional economies flourished in which "leisurely work habits" were commonly preferred to long hours and more pay (Bendix, p. 52).
The religious wars that raged in the 16th century, however, allowed for a more urban society to emerge. Regional rulers turned to the mercenary and began supplying the means of soldiering, whereas in earlier societies soldiers were expected to bring and maintain their own materials, as Weber notes. A more centralized society in which "kinship" (Bendix, p. 52) was less reliable than bureaucratized methods emerged — due to the fracturing of Europe and the creation of various factions of thought and belief — to take the place of the medieval society, which had assigned a more defined "place" to each individual, with each class expected to look after itself.
What characterizes market society is the overall focus of all aspects of life on the exchange of goods, the establishment of wealth, material gain, and market economics. Financial industries emerge and centralization is key in bringing about central banks. The influence of central banking can be seen in every market society. Prior to the rise of the market society, monarchs had more control over a nation's money supply; but with wars and mounting debts, private financiers gained leverage over rulers and influenced both the political and economic direction of those nations. As the New World's focus was money-oriented as well as Protestant in ideology — which was more centralized and impersonal than Old World ideology — the influence of private financiers and their ability to establish central banks in major nations helped bring the market society into being.
This transformation is significant because it helps explain how society changed so radically from the medieval age to the modern age. The division of labor that resulted from centralization, industrialization, and Protestant ideology — Weber's bureaucratic system based on Calvinist doctrine, for example, and the "Protestant aptitude for commerce" (Bendix, p. 55) — coupled with the movement of people from rural areas into cities, took away the individual's means of providing for himself and his family, making people more dependent on others within the market society. No longer could one tend to one's own garden, farm, or mill in a local village, since many people had moved to cities. Buying provisions replaced growing or making them for oneself. The era of the skilled laborer gave place to the era of the micro-skilled laborer.
Because of the interdependency of individuals within a market society, the "struggle for survival" is never fully felt (Heilbroner, p. 2). Yet this may also be seen as a false sense of security, as total war among nations can bring that struggle back in an instant — as people across Europe certainly experienced during World War I and World War II.
"Unions, strike-breaking, and corporate consolidation"
"Protestant and Jewish ideologies driving capitalist worldview"
The shift to market society is a fundamental transformation because it could not have occurred without the foundational replacement of beliefs and material conditions brought about by the religious wars at the end of the Medieval Age and the influx of luxury goods — and the resultant rise of the middle class and democratic ideals. These historical events were fundamental to the overall transformation of nations into a more centralized, bureaucratic, regimented, and materialistic society, where Old World virtues such as the acceptance of suffering in relation to salvation were displaced by ideas of material accumulation as signs of divine favor and, therefore, salvation. The more one demonstrated industriousness, the more one showed that one stood right with God.
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