Who is the real capitalist, or symbol for capitalism, in Balzac's Eugenie Grandet? The obvious answer is Grandet himself, but I don't think this is right. Capitalism is all about exchange, and even though Grandet sells his products, he buys almost nothing; that is, everything he consumes (in a literal sense) comes from his own land. He is a miser because his relationship to trade is one-sided: he receives without giving.
Charles, on the other hand, is the perfect embodiment of "modern capitalism." I say this because the only morality in capitalism is profitability, and is not the sole guiding force in Charles' travels to the French Indies? He trades slaves, Chinese, birds nests, etc., not because he has any interest in these things themselves, but only in the money that they bring in.
And this, my dear friends, is the end of the "craft" as we know it (or knew it, I should say!) We are all intermediary players in the line of production and consumption. People own businesses, trade stock, advertise, market, research products, develop products, but does anyone actually make the product? This "secondary" task is relegated to unskilled laborers in far-off lands. The important thing is not what is selling, but simply that it is selling.
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