Abstract

The article analyzes the economic determinants of the rise and initial growth of Protestantism, specifically Calvinism, described as the Weber reverse problem in light of his thesis of Calvinist outcomes for economy. These determinants of Calvinism are differentiated from its assumed economic outcomes, specifically the emergence and development of modern capitalism in Weberian sociological accounts. It is argued and showed that the economic determinants of Calvinism’s emergence and early evolution are primarily pre-capitalist in character rather than capitalist in the modern sense. Therefore, the initial overarching economic determinant and setting of early Calvinism is considered to be pre-capitalism, as distinguished from modern industrial capitalism, specifically feudalism as the ancien regime of master–servant economy. Such a pre-capitalist determinant and context suggests that of Calvinism was itself economically determined or influenced before presumably determining or influencing modern capitalism..