Sociologist: Some people argue that capital punishment for theft was an essential part of the labor discipline of British capitalism  Critics of such a view argue that more people were executed for theft in preindustrial England than were executed in England after industrialization
But such a criticism overlooks the fact that industrialization and capitalism are two very different social phenomena, and that the latter predated the former by several centuries
It is cited as a fact supporting the critics of the view that capital punishment for theft was an essential part of the labor discipline of British capitalism.