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Paul Matzko's avatar

On culture, you end up near Deirdre McCloskey's position in her Bourgeois trilogy, which roots industrialization (and the exponential takeoff of economic growth) in shifting cultural attitudes towards commerce in early modern Western Europe.

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David Vandervort's avatar

Very interesting! Here's yet another theory for you. The British were at the forefront of another revolution: Banking. Insurance. CREDIT and that was necessary to turn a few inventions, no matter how useful, into a revolution if you can't pay for it. Sure, Rome was rich but it wasn't good at spreading the money (and credit) around.

Maybe they did invent a printing press or a cotton gin or a hundred other things that disappeared without a trace because the inventors were never able to cash in on them.

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