Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and

operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and
investments are made by private actors in the free market; profit is sent to owners who invest
in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies.

There is no consensus on the precise definition of capitalism, nor how the term should be used
as an analytical category.[1] There is, however, little controversy that private ownership of the
means of production, creation of goods or services for profit in a market, and prices and
wages are elements of capitalism.[2] There are a variety of historical cases to which the
designation is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.[3] Some define
capitalism as where all the means of production are privately owned, and some define it more
loosely where merely "most" are in private hands — while others refer to the latter as a mixed
economy biased toward capitalism. More fundamentally, others define capitalism as a system
where production is carried out to generate profit, or exchange-value, regardless of legal
ownership titles. Private ownership in capitalism implies the right to control property,
including determining how it is used, who uses it, whether to sell or rent it, and the right to
the revenue generated by the property.[4]

Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the
analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree that government does not
have control over markets (laissez faire), and on property rights.[5][6] Most political economists
emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor and class.[7] There is general
agreement that capitalism encourages economic growth.[8] The extent to which different
markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and
policy, and many states have what are termed mixed economies.[7]

Capitalism, as a deliberate economic system, developed incrementally from the 16th century
in Europe,[9] although proto-capitalist organizations existed in the ancient world, and early
aspects of merchant capitalism flourished during the Late Middle Ages.[10][11][12] Capitalism
became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism.[12] Capitalism
gradually spread throughout Europe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main
means of industrialization throughout much of the world.[3] Today the capitalist system is the
world's most dominant form of economic model.

There are many variants of capitalism in existence. All these forms of capitalism are based on
production for profit. The dominant forms of capitalism are listed here.

Anarcho-capitalism, Mercantilism, Free-market capitalism, Social market economy,

State capitalism, Corporate capitalism, Mixed Economy.

According to Schafer capitalism is : An economic system in which the means of production

are largely in private hands and the main incentive for economic activity is the
accumulation of profits

Giddens : A system of economic enterprise based on market exchange. ‘Capital’ refers to

any asset, including money, property and machines, which can be used to produce
commodities for sale or invested in a market with the hope of achieving a profit. Nearly all
industrial societies today are capitalist in orientation – their economic systems are based on
free enterprise and on economic competition.

Marx's notion of the capitalist mode of production is characterised as a system of primarily

private ownership of the means of production in a mainly market economy, with a legal
framework on commerce and a physical infrastructure provided by the state.