ABSTRACT
The chapter distinguishes traditional aristocratic empires on the one hand from primitive societies and on the other hand from modern societies. The distinction between aristocratic empires and modern societies also turns on the aristocracy. The best-known case of the commercialization of an aristocratic order is no doubt that of Western Europe, because it marked the beginning of a process of change that eventually led to the modern industrial societies of the present. The commercialization of Western Europe that began in the eleventh century had the most far-reaching results, for it and the industrialization that grew out of it or their profoundly upsetting consequences eventually spread to the rest of the globe. The Chinese Empire of the Sung epoch was unquestionably the wealthiest and most advanced economy on the globe in the 11th and 12th centuries, that is, in the same period when commercialization in Western Europe had begun.
