Brilliant. I did not know of Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History. Your big questions do present a necessary agenda. Your attention to the difference between England and the Netherlands (and I would add early modern Italy) is telling. But as a sometimes scholar of capitalism, from a Marxist perspective (there are many) I found your explanations lacking. Just about every Marxist historian and social scientist I have read looks at modes of production as social relationships. Thus capitalism is not just an economic system, much less global commodification, but a relation between capitalists and proletarians (and yes, it is more complicated than this, middle classes usually manage the exploitation of the proletariat. Where does this vision fit into your model/questions? Perhaps attention (or even mentioning) Thompson, Hobsbawm, Rude, Hill, Brenner could enrich your analysis…even if you reject this for a mainline or cultural economic perspective. Want to continue this discussion? Email me at kulikoffxie @gmail.