Written in the early 1960s and published during the Cultural Revolution, this book is China's leading text on the emergence and development of capitalism in England, the United States, France, Germany, and Japan. It has retained its relevance by its emphasis on the importance of economic factors in historical change, thus confirming Deng Xiaoping's vision of China's development driven by economics. Here is a perspective on the historical development of capitalism as it applies to the histories of the major capitalist countries; it should prove interesting to students of Chinese thought on economic development filtered through the unique Chinese vision of Marxism.