This is materially false. Throughout history capital has been used to stop competitors. Capital is not necessarily money in a practical sense. Regardless, money has decided these things for hundreds of years as well. Whether nation states rose or fell depended on whether they could pay mercenaries to fight for them. The largest brick castle in the world, Malbork fell when the Teutonic order was besieged and could no longer pay the castles defenders. They were then “bought out” by a Polish general. This doesn’t just apply to mercenary armies, or war, by the way. This isn’t just some product of “modern capitalism”.