ABSTRACT
What difference did the political environment of numerous armed, competing, and roughly comparable states in early modern Europe make to the emergence of industrial capitalism in Europe, and to a world economy centered there? This paper reexamines those questions in light of recent and forthcoming research showing that as late as 1750 Europe did not have unique advantages in physical productivity, human capital, or the capacity to accumulate financial capital; its economic supremacy and centrality are nineteenth-century phenomena. The comparisons here are largely limited to China which, since it was one empire rather than many states, provides a useful foil.
