ABSTRACT
Humanity underwent three critical economic revolutions: the Neolithic agricultural revolution, the urban revolution and the industrial revolution. Although taking millennia, the Neolithic revolution was short by comparison with all previous developments in human history, and once it had taken hold, human life across the face of the earth had been changed so radically that one might be tempted to say that nothing similar has ever happened. The urban revolution which followed was dependent upon the sedentary form of life made possible by agriculture, and closely tied to state formation, and it in turn led to the creation of wealth incomparable to anything previously seen. It too has a claim to singularity. By comparison, the capitalist industrial revolution is a mere refinement of the trading habits which made the first cities preeminent.1
