"Capitalism" is a term invented by 19th century socialists to refer to the system that had displaced the common oppression of the mass of the people by the narrow class with disproportionate control over land ("feudalism") with the common oppression of the mass of the people by the narrow class with disproportionate control over capital (which had come to include, but not be limited to, land.)

The concept of the arrangements between the strong and the weak which socialists paint as being oppressive in each system being entered into by mutual consent was often a feature of the justification of many implementations of both feudal and capitalist systems.