You are correct. I plan to write a separate article about them in the future. In this article, I decided to focus on the Commercial societies with larger population centers.
"Commercial societies were fundamentally based on creating wealth through trade and innovation of technology, skills, or social organizations, not expropriating wealth." That may be the best summation of your approach to discussing the development of progress. Creating rather than "stealing" wealth. Perhaps stealing is still too strong a term as the "government" did provide some security, judicial, or other benefits. Your other factors play a part as well, but this seems pretty central. And perhaps why the developed world has yet to develop to the level of the Western example?
I am waiting to read more from Lorenzo Warby on his ideas about the value of "governmentally provided order", although I read just the other day an article about banking that claimed the early commercial activity was not so much dependent upon the government enforcement of contracts as on the self policing among tradesmen to shun actors who misbehaved in regard to their promises. On that basis a contract was mostly just the list of what was agreed to so everyone was clear on the terms and conditions, not because they expected a governmental or judicial relief if it was "violated", especially if the violation was intentional rather than inadvertent (leading in turn to insurance??).
Maybe in a later article you are going to expand on the role of foreign trade (in contrast to only local trade) to bring more ideas, products, and technology to a given locale in a manner better and faster than local development might have provided? But will it have proven almost essential to your thesis or more or less just contributory to it?
You fail to mention the Hanseatic League and the role of shipbuilding and maritime trade.
Thanks for the comment.
You are correct. I plan to write a separate article about them in the future. In this article, I decided to focus on the Commercial societies with larger population centers.
"Commercial societies were fundamentally based on creating wealth through trade and innovation of technology, skills, or social organizations, not expropriating wealth." That may be the best summation of your approach to discussing the development of progress. Creating rather than "stealing" wealth. Perhaps stealing is still too strong a term as the "government" did provide some security, judicial, or other benefits. Your other factors play a part as well, but this seems pretty central. And perhaps why the developed world has yet to develop to the level of the Western example?
I am waiting to read more from Lorenzo Warby on his ideas about the value of "governmentally provided order", although I read just the other day an article about banking that claimed the early commercial activity was not so much dependent upon the government enforcement of contracts as on the self policing among tradesmen to shun actors who misbehaved in regard to their promises. On that basis a contract was mostly just the list of what was agreed to so everyone was clear on the terms and conditions, not because they expected a governmental or judicial relief if it was "violated", especially if the violation was intentional rather than inadvertent (leading in turn to insurance??).
Maybe in a later article you are going to expand on the role of foreign trade (in contrast to only local trade) to bring more ideas, products, and technology to a given locale in a manner better and faster than local development might have provided? But will it have proven almost essential to your thesis or more or less just contributory to it?