Let’s start with a definition:
Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled. Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded by private individuals or corporations and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy.
According to Dictionary.com the word capitalism came into existance around 1850, but two thousand years before then the Roman Republic was a capitalist economy without a definition.
It’s my theory that a division of labor always exists in human society. The more people the more differentation until people run out of new skills to try or limits are placed on the number of skills (e.g. poverty). Capitalists always show up in societies as salemen or entrepreneurs who are clever at buying and selling, so as Rome became a great city its merchantile capabilities multiplied.
Roman businessmen were born out of a middle class that didn’t exist at the beginning of the Republic. In the days of the kings the ranks of the army were divided by wealth. Those at the top rank could serve in the cavalry, hence the name Knights or Equestrians. Later the Knights quit the cavalry but retained their status as the leading voting block in the Comitia Centuriata.- the senior people’s assembly.
As Rome grew the demand for business grew, but the nobility considered merchant activities off limits for them – it lacked dignitas. Since there was no government administration the Senate looked to the Knights to handle the business of the Republic. The first of these “businessmen” were called Publicans. They were employed by the state to manage public contracts: to collect taxes, manage mining companies, and oversee road construction. These contracts were awarded at auction and their duration was five years.
During the Punic Wars Publicans built ships for the Roman Navy and equiped the Roman Army. The nobility began to covert the profits of the Knights and become involved in sea trade, until a law was passed in 218 BC forbidding Senators from owning ships with a larger capacity of more than 300 amphorae (1 amp= 6 gal). In 215 three Publican contractors were censured because they provided financing to Spanish tribes (the enemy). They scuttled their ships and sued the Republic for reimbursement for the loss.
The Senate chose to utilize the Knights commercially, instead of creating a civil service, and disregarded their political claims. But the power of the Knights grew and they were able to exert great influence as a class. In 169 BC the censor Tiberius Gracchus cancelled all Publican contracts because of corruption, but the Knights rebelled and accused him of treason against the state. Tiberius was acquited, but the Knights has flexed their muscles.
By the fall of the Republic there were hundreds of corporations selling shares to investors. Manufacturing and trades flourished: including furniture making, leatherwork, weaving, metalworking, stoneworking, and food processing.