Any book that claims in its title to be about the origins of capitalism might well seem hostage to the accusation of either arrogance or rhetorical abandon. It is hardly a small subject – it refers to a whole economic system. The use of the term capitalism is so pervasive today that trying to define what it means in practice seems as impossible as, say, defining Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist society. However, I will argue that England, Scotland, and some of the American Colonies, between roughly 1680 and 1760, became the first economies in which the use of capital spread widely enough throughout society to change not just economic practice, but culture and society as well. I will, though, primarily focus on England as it was by far the largest of these economies, as well as being the centre of an Atlantic economic system. It was also where the intellectual impetus for change originated in an outpouring of printed works. But this will certainly not be a nationalist history. The institutions of merchant capital all evolved – and were used throughout – Europe and other parts of the globe, and capital as paper money first became socially embedded in the Italian Renaissance cities, most notably Florence and Naples, and certain forms were also then used in Antwerp and the Dutch Republic. But unless further research throws up new evidence, it seems that it was in England and Scotland between c.1680 and 1750 that the practices, morals, and institutions of capital formation and maintenance spread throughout a national and imperial economic system.