30,000 to 100,000. The population was diverse, with little sense of community.
In this individualistic society a merchant randomly hired unemployed agents,
and cultural beliefs discouraged investment in information. The historical
evidence shows that social institutions emerged to reflect these cultural differ-
ences. The Maghribis invested in sharing information and the Genoese did not.
Each Maghribi corresponded with many other Maghribi traders by sending
informative letters to them with the latest commercial information and gossip
including what transpired in relations among other Maghribis. Important busi-
ness dealings were conducted in public. By contrast the Genoese were
reserved, concealed information, and were jealous of business secrets.
Following military and political changes in the Mediterranean both groups
expanded their trade to Spain and Constantinople, each responding very differ-
ently to this economic shock. The Maghribis expanded their trade by employ-
ing other Maghribis as agents who emigrated from North Africa to the new
trade centres. The Genoese tended to establish agents that were native to the
other trade centre.
This example suggests that while cultures may change under the influence
of economic growth and development,they do not necessarily converge and
initial cultural differences have an important influence on the subsequent
evolution of those cultures. This sort of process is called by economists ‘path
dependency’.
Weber and the spirit of capitalism
Perhaps the most influential writer on the link between culture and economic
growth is Max Weber. Weber argued that the Protestant religion was good for
growth and because much of Europe’s population was Protestant it industrial-
ized earliest. The key to the rise to economic dominance of Protestant North
America rather than Catholic South America, according to this view, was reli-
gion. (Chapter 11 discussed the alternative view that the key difference
between the two sub-continents was geography.)
Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism
Max Weber’s view is captured by the title of his most famous book,The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,first published in 1904–05. The
emerging capitalism of the seventeenth century was about more than the
pursuit of gain, rather ‘capitalism is identical with the pursuit of profit, and
forever renewed profit by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enter-
prise’ (Weber 1992:xxxi). Weber argued that Protestantism was particularly
suited for developing this economic rationalism and profit-seeking drive; it
celebrated labour and hard work as the fulfilment of a divine calling given to
all individuals, and its puritanical inclinations discouraged the luxurious and
idle enjoyment of wealth which would distract from a righteous life. Weber
Culture 255