Abstract

Plymouth can be regarded as a test case of the relationship Weber posited between the Protestant ethic and Capitalism. Although the Plymouth experience confirms Weber's idea that Calvinism made labor an absolute end in itself and that religious belief gave a direction to practical conduct, it gives little support to the notion that it also encouraged individualism. In a small isolated society dominated by a congregational church, Calvinism generated an agreed-upon code of social behavior which was strictly enforced and which inhibited the. freedom of individual expression. The Protestant ethic fostered individualism and consequently the development of capitalism only where congregations maintained themselves within larger societies controlled by non-Calvinists