Just a moment...

The application of this market logic to land and farming marked the formal birth of capitalism. It meant that, for the first time in history, people’s lives were effectively governed by the imperatives to intensify productivity and maximise profit.

The adoption by the provincial gentry of literati ideals (and bureaucratic ambitions) was a vital stage in China’s transition from a semi-feudal society, where power was wielded by great landholders, into an agrarian empire. What made that possible was an imperial system that relied much less on the coercive power of the imperial centre (a clumsy a

For Chinese people, the transition took the edge off urban life. For small businesses, it meant a boom in customers, as the reductions in friction led Chinese urbanites to spend more. And for China’s new wave of startups, it meant skyrocketing valuations and a ceaseless drive to push into ever more sectors of urban life.

rare examples of government intervention which actually allows pricing mechanisms in markets to function more freely.