Was it a lack of manpower? Was it geographic circumstances? Why couldn’t civilizations like, say, Babylon or Rome have an Industrial Revolution?
In: 448
I’m **no** expert, but wikipedia says that the Song Dynasty was developing a lot of the economic features that (in Europe) paved the way for industrialization, in the 1200s. Stuff like greater regional specialization and proto-capitalist banking/finance.
We’ll never know for sure how it might have progressed because the Mongol Yuan Dynasty mostly reverted the economy back to a simpler state, and the next Han dynasty 300 years later (the Ming) also didn’t restart the process.
Latest Answers