The mission of The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism (CISC) is to examine and increase public awareness of the moral foundations of capitalism.

When complete, this website will house important materials for anyone interested in the moral foundations of capitalism—everything from university course syllabuses that focus on some aspect of the moral foundations of capitalism to an annotated bibliography of classic texts on capitalism. There is also a section of links to other, externally-hosted, online resources on capitalism.

The main feature here is a presentation of the essentials of the system of capitalism, called simply "What Capitalism Is." In addition to these introductory essays on the main elements of capitalism, you may also wish to explore further questions about capitalism contained in the FAQ section.

Students of capitalism may also wish to understand the broad trends of economic change and the development of institutions. Now featured are a collection of graphs and charts depicting a wealth of information about the Trends of Capitalism.

Learning about capitalism also means understanding the history of how economists throughout history have explained and justified the free market. By investigating the lives and contributions of Free Market Economists, you can gain a better grasp of how we understand the economy today.

The history of capitalism would not be complete without an understanding of the contributions of great businessmen, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who contributed to the improvement of human flourishing through the use of private property to create wealth.



The Clemson Institute began with a generous grant from the BB&T Charitable Foundation, and it now serves as the flagship program for the more than twenty BB&T-funded programs at colleges and universities around the country. You can find more information here about these programs, including links to individual program webpages.