雖然資本主義是個老的議題，但是將資本主義關聯到文明的發展來加以探討的並不多見。布賀岱《文明與資本主義》，可以說是一部解釋西方資本主義發展所具社會認識意義的典範之著。而對於本書中所具有的社會認識意義之揭露，也即是本文企圖有所貢獻的所在。雖然，面對這樣一部包含著三大冊的巨著，要在一篇文章中詳盡的探討其所蘊涵的重要意義，是有困難。但至少透過對本書論述結構的掌握，作者指出了，西方近代資本主義發展，同時伴隨的一種經濟生活的層級化，其實也正是西方在其中古以後文明發展土，所具有的一種複雜化與多樣化的過程。就社會認識的意義而言，我們也會看到它所呈顯的社會變遷方式，並非是從某一類型到另一類型的截然替換，而是一種由點到面，由簡單到複雜，以及由慢到快相互搭引刺激的方式。

It was an old issue discussing about capitalism， yet scholars seldom related the discussing of capitalism to the developmental process of civilization. For social understanding of the process of Western capitlism, Braudel's three volumes work, "Civilization and Capitalism", no doubt, becomes paradigmatic example. Though it is difficult to catch the internal significances of this three volumes work thorough, yet in this paper, the author try to figure out the parallel relationship between the development of modern capitalism and the hierarchicalization of economic life. This process is exactly the same process of complication and diversification of Western civilization. The way it changed, from the social understanding's point of view, is not from a certain type to the other totally, but developed gradually from points to a plain, from simplicity to complexity, as the result of mutural stimulus among different rhythms, smooth or rapid.