Capitalism and Arithmetic

by Frank J. Swetz

Book Overview

In Mr. Swetz's learned and engrossing commentary on the text, you can find facts that will impress your boss and amaze your friends, such as the mathematical origins of the words 'counter, ' 'banks, ' and 'digits.' The rich historical details support a compelling account of how mercantile capitalism in the Venetian republic of the early Renaissance crucially influenced the evolution of mathematics and how mathematics helped the rise of capitalism.
--Wall...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812690141
• ISBN13: 9780812690149
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Open Court
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The importance of having the number "zero. "

A great discourse on why society could not progress until the number "zero" was used as a place-holder.

Early history of business and computational science

The advent of Hindu/Arabic numbers in Europe made possible "algorithmic" calculation. Math schools were established where parents sent their sons to prepare for jobs with merchants, where ability to calculate was a requirement. Curiously, there were many different ways of setting up problems for solution with pencil and paper, and only later on did we agree on the standard "algorithms" for addition, subtraction, etc. that are now taught to children. The ability to compute proportionality, the basis of the money changer's art, was regarded as amazing.