Capitalism is a system of commodity production, centred upon the relation between private ownership of capital and propertyless wage labour, this relation forming the main axis of a class system. Capitalist enterprise depends upon production for competitive markets, prices being signals for investors, producers, and consumers alike.

DEFINE: Provides a precise definition of capitalism centered on the capital-wage labor class relation and market-determined prices.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 150