it's very weird that you're the strict historical materialist here
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...which is that China was a (mostly) stable, unified, empire--whereas Europe was in the middle of cultural/political turmoil
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man it really is amazing the kind of development you can get from an anarchic mass of fairly small states
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not too small though, and not too anarchic, plus accumulation by a "middle" class is very helpful
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a middle class is a prerequisite; they're the ones who are doing the trading
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Mainly I'm thinking of Renaissance Italy and the city states of Classical Greece
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well yeah, little trading cities do a lot. Rome was one of those once.
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now you're speaking my language
End of conversation
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