This is following up on a comment by /u/commiespaceinvader (great name by the way) in this thread
Commiespaceinvader cites Max Weber and the Protestant Work Ethic as a source of an ideological underpinning of capitalism. I had thought Weber's work was now regarded as not convincing. See for example https://m.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1nm309/what_are_the_critiques_of_max_webers_the/ or http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/12/11099/
And, also, in the case of England, the Puritans might have won the Civil War, but I thought they pretty comprehensively lost the peace. I've read some 18th century English literature and the Scottish Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and all in all the society then seems pretty consumerist. If anything, conspicuous consumption sounds like a better description.
So, what is the current historical opinion on Weber's theory? Is there evidence that people were really more into accumulating capital in 18th century England than they were in Renaissance Florence (for example)? What evidence do historians use to measure these things when there weren't any opinion surveys back then?
It is probably impossible and possibly even irresponsible to attribute an idea as pervasive and abstract as capitalism to a specific time and place.
Clearly some aspects of capitalism existed before the 18th century but may not have been expressly called that. At its core, capitalism is the idea of individual ownership, paired with the rule of law that protects the possessions of individuals. Obviously, at many points in history in great civilizations practiced varying forms of capitalism, though it clearly did not apply uniformly until later innovations like Common Law and the liberties protected by the Magna Carta.
To the geography of your question, There are many theories as to why many of capitalism's great innovations came from Great Britain. One popular theory (based on readings of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - that is of course Anglo Saxon centric) is that personal liberty and capitalism were firmly enshrined into English culture in the Middle Ages. Ideas like the 'folkmoot' where local leaders would get together and decide how to mend disagreements can be argued to be predecessors to many modern systems of law, order,and property protection like rule "of the people." The following piece expands on this theory according to Hannan (who is quite well read but IS a politician in the end of the day) the seeds of capitalism were sown in by Anglo Saxon culture much earlier than Adam Smith.
But in general it would be impossible to attribute an idea like capitalism to such a specific time and place. It would be like trying to attribute the idea of the Republi. to the Romans alone. Sure they contributed greatly to it, but it's impossible to attribute the whole idea to them. Many states before Rome adopted various republican ideas.