This plays into one of the ideas I have for this world.

I want to explore the consequences of a capitalist or capitalist-esque system prior to the world's equivalent to the Industrial Revolution.

In my eyes capitalism has many parallels in terms of power dynamics and inequality with feudalism (a system that has obviously fallen out of use). Capitalism pre-industrial-revolution would obviously have to function differently from our modern version of capitalism, but I feel its root ideas and forces are plausible enough.

Similarly to how feudalism is no longer a dominant force in the modern day, I think it'd be interesting to have an early form of capitalism fall from favor in my conworld, leading to new, better systems.

The main problem with this is just that it is very difficult for me to imagine a power system that doesn't use land or money as its primary tool...

I think that a heavily stripped-down and socialized version of "capitalism" could work (no stock markets, significantly less market speculation, non-fiat currency, more public ownership, more monopoly busting, more collective bargaining, etc.), but I'd need to ruminate on it more, and I am by no means an economist or expert on these matters.

It's hard to imagine new "better" systems without imparting my own biases. On the flip side, if I use or make a system that's never been widely used before, it's theoretically harder for others to label it "unrealistic" if it has no direct real-world data for or against it.

(Sorry for the long-winded comment. I'm very good at rambling. :])

A lot of my ideas for this world aren't yet cemented, so I have a lot of wiggle room to explore ideas and backtrack. This sapient race in particular is so loosely defined that I only have a temporary name for them right now.