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Murray Rothbard has quite effectively refuted Weber's linking of Protestantism to the "spirit of capitalism".

He points out that the creation of capital markets occurred 200 years prior to Luther in the cities of Catholic Italy and Catholic Flanders.

He demonstrates that the economic theories which undergirded the financial developments of the XVIth century were elaborated by Jesuit and Dominican theologians of the Salamanca school, who first began to study the structure of production, the theory of money and banking and the theory of subjective value in pricing.

The father of modern economics was an Irish Catholic entrepreneur working in Catholic France - Richard Cantillon. Adam Smith drinks deeply from the well of Cantillon's insights, and in his Wealth of Nations tellingly describes the intricate issues of money supply in the context of New Spain: issues which the Salamanca school had already taken up in great detail.

And the Jewish contribution to capitalist thought and innovation cannot be forgotten - Ricardo alone provided insights we still use today.

Catholic Austria gave us the Marginal Utility school and the strongest defense of free markets ever elaborated.

The main economic contribution of Protestant Germany has been the economic "discoveries" of Marx and Engels, and of Protestant England in the XXth century, it has been Keynesian socialism.

Weber's simplistic view is thoroughly refuted.

He demonstrates that the economic theories which undergirded the financial developments of the XVIth century were elaborated by Jesuit and Dominican theologians of the Salamanca school, who first began to study the structure of production, the theory of money and banking and the theory of subjective value in pricing.

Let's not forget that the Salamanca Scholastics discovered what happens when you start accumulating a lot of gold/currency over time in circulation. Yes, our Dominican friends in Salamanca were to first to discuss the causes of inflation! They also wrote many articles protesting against the mercantalistic policies of the time.

I don't argue that the Catholics preceded the Protestants in understanding capitalism; I don't think the author (or Weber) argues that the Protestants invented capitalism. Rather, his argument that Protestant promotes individualism and second generation Protestants are motivated to "prove" their conversion by good works, motivates them to ardent capitalism.