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  3. Historians tend to date the birth of modern capitalism to the late sixteenth and early seventeen centuries, but to understand wh

Historians tend to date the birth of modern capitalism to the late sixteenth and early seventeen centuries, but to understand wh

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问题     Historians tend to date the birth of modern capitalism to the late sixteenth and early seventeen centuries, but to understand what actually occurred an important distinction must be made. Here are basically two types of capitalism: commercial and industrial. In commercial capitalism the capitalist is usually a merchant who invests money both in buying the raw material and in marketing the finished product one produced. In the case of wool cloth, for example, the merchant buys the raw wool: then either the merchant or the agent carries the wool to the artisans who spin, weave, and dye it in their shops or homes. They usually work by the piece and own or rent their equipment. When the cloth is finished, the merchant then sells the product: the merchant’s profit lies in the difference between what the cloth cost to produce and the purchase price of the finished goods.
    This form of capitalism, with the merchant as capitalist, began in the Middle Ages and remained the dominant form for the production of industrial goods down to the eighteenth century. The economic boom of the sixteenth century did not significantly affect the way the goods were produced: what did change was the number of people engaged in producing. The production of industrial goods significantly increased in the sixteenth century because so many more independent producers were working for the merchant.
    Industrial capitalism, on the other hand, refers to investment in the modes or means of production. In this case the capitalist is not the merchant but the factory or mine owner. Investment in machines means more productivity per worker and more variety in products. In the sixteenth century a rapid surge in the amount of investment in machinery occurred in such areas as metalworking, glass making, paper production, coal mining and firearms manufacture. Although the output of goods provided by industrial capitalism climbed significantly after 1550, until the end of the eighteenth century commercial capitalism was responsible for most of the industrial production of Europe.
The first paragraph of this passage is mostly about______.
选项 A、products produced under industrial capitalism
B、how commercial capitalism operates
C、how industrial capitalism operates
D、the economic boom of the sixteenth century
答案B
解析 综合题。文章第一段主要讲商业资本的运作方式，B正确。
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