I'm studying economic history, and there's a big question bugging me (without solving it, I don't know I could completely understand the economic history of humanity):
Why didn't Capitalism develop before it eventually did? After all, Land has been a form of capital for humanity since the Neolithic, when the discovery of agriculture allowed for the production of food at the disposal of the population. Why couldn't the land-owners invest their surpluses in newer forms of capital (such as tools or machines)?
I understand that the necessary knowledge (especially scientific knowledge) for creating capital was not always there. But in the Middle Ages, for example, there WAS already some technological progress: I mean, you had plughs, cranes, bridges, windmills, etc. Why didn't any nobleman/merchant/artisan start to accumulate more and more capital to produce more and more (it's not like they couldn't create markets for their products)? They also had free labour (slaves and well, serfs were not that expensive to maintain).
I'd really appreciate some insight on this. Thanks in advance! (I posted this on the Economics and History forums, as I thought it belonged rightly to both).