Étienne Fortier-Dubois

purely contingent and accidental reasons. Pomeranz puts great stress on one factor, that China’s coal reserves were both geologically inaccessible and geographically remote, making a steam-powered industrial revolution like the one in Europe impossible

By 1370 the population had fallen to half of its level under the Song.

In 1078, China produced 125,000 tons of cast iron, more than the rest of the planet put together.

The Ming Emperors believed that Song policy had produced a weak, divided polity and had undermined the stability of traditional Chinese society.

This massive economy led to rich trading ties with a large number of its neighbors - including Japan, Korea, and the Indian Ocean marketplace. But the most significant economic ties across the totality of the Song Dynasty would be those not of its own making. Rather, they would be it its competitor and rival states to the north - first the Liao Dyn... See more

emergence of a market in land, which led to the consolidation of smaller farms and the appearance of commercial agriculture

the Song came to depend increasingly on taxes on trade and so systematically encouraged it.