The Chinese Itinerary: A Long, Calm River?
The preceding reflections concentrated on the Middle East/Mediterranean/ Europe region. This region was the scene of the formation of the first (tributary) civilisations—Egypt and Mesopotamia—and later, of its Greek market/slavery periphery.
Then, as from the Hellenistic period, it saw successive attempts to construct tributary empires (Roman, Byzantine, Caliphal, Ottoman). These were never really able to become stable and they experienced long and chaotic declines. Perhaps for this reason conditions were more favourable to the early emergence of capitalism in its historical form, as a prelude to the conquest of the world by Europe.The itinerary of China was extremely different. Almost from the start it became a tributary empire that was exceptionally stable, in spite of the moments when it threatened to fall apart. Nevertheless these threats were always finally overcome.
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