The Rise of Empires

The Political Economy of Innovation

Sangaralingam Ramesh

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783030016081
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Policy
• Index: Economics

This book describes and evaluates how institutional innovation and technological innovation have impacted on humanity from pre-historical times to modern times, and how societies have been transformed in history. The author interrogates the relationship between innovation and civilisation -– particularly the dynamic whereby innovation leads to empire-building -– and explores innovation efforts that stimulated economic and social synergies from the Babylonian Empire in 1900 BC up to the British Empire in the twentieth century. The author uses historical cross-cultural case studies to establish the factors which have given competitive advantages to societies and empires. This book will be of interest to researchers and students in political economy, economic history, economic growth and innovation economics.

© The Author(s) 2018

Sangaralingam RameshThe Rise of Empireshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01608-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Sangaralingam Ramesh¹

(1)

Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, Rewley House, Oxford, UK

Sangaralingam Ramesh

Keywords

InnovationCivilisationsHomo SapiensModern day

End Abstract

The purpose of this book is to evaluate the role of innovation in economics, the factors it depends on, and how it emerges over time, based on a historical analysis of several civilisations over a 10,000-year period starting with the emergence of humanity from its place of development and evolution in Africa. In this case, the analysis and evaluation begin with the emergence of Homo Sapiens from Africa, and extends to the Palaeolithic and to the Bronze Age. The earliest contemporary civilisations, ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus Valley civilisation of modern-day northern India are also discussed. While the civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt proved successful and relatively longer lasting than the Indus Valley civilisation, the latter was vast and, perhaps, more technologically, economically, and politically advanced than the others. Contextually, the Indus Valley civilisation covered an area comparable to a quarter of the size of Western Europe, populated by an estimated one million people, equivalent to the size of the population of Rome at the height of its power.¹ Furthermore, archaeological evidence suggests that the Indus Valley civilisation constituted 80,000 settlements ranging from villages to towns to cities, of which there were five major sites, two of the biggest of these being Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.² All three civilisations traded with each other, contributing to a diffusion of knowledge between its peoples and others. However, the more advanced Indus Valley civilisation died out while the other two civilisations lasted. The Indus Valley civilisation was considered advanced for its time for a number of reasons.³ Firstly, the civilisation built merchant ships that enabled it to trade with the rest of the ancient world, including the other major contemporary civilisations of the time—ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Secondly, the civilisation had the technological capacity to build drainage and sanitation systems comparable to ancient Rome, but 2000 years ahead of its time.⁴ Thirdly, the major metropolises of the civilisation featured well-planned streets, buildings made of mud baked bricks—a first for the ancient world—and major storage facilities for water and grain. Lastly, and perhaps more indicative that the Indus Valley civilisation represented a highly developed ancient economy, was the use of standardised weights that utilised a binary/decimal system.⁵ The use of such a system would allow for the weighing, distribution, and storage of agricultural produce. It would also facilitate a system of payments to soldiers and workers by the relevant authorities. However, the Indus Valley civilisation died out. A number of reasons have been put forward for the early demise of the Indus Valley civilisation, ranging from attacks by hostile tribes attracted by its prosperity to natural disasters such as earthquakes and the changing flows of rivers.⁶ The latter is most likely because most of the urban centres of the Indus Valley civilisation were located next to rivers. Nevertheless, the longevity of the civilisations of ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia may have indirectly contributed towards the development of civilisation in the Mediterranean. The Babylonian Empire formed upon the remnants of ancient Mesopotamia. It too traded with the peoples of the Mediterranean. It was later in this region that the civilisation of ancient Greece developed, with its city states and the development of the contemporary western ideal of freedom of the individual and property rights. Thus, the basic tenets of contemporary traditional neoclassical economics, freedom, trade, and private property rights lie in this ancient world. The demise of the civilisation of ancient Greece was superseded by the rise of the Roman Republic, which itself was superseded by the Roman Empire. The ideals of governance of the Roman Republic, the freedom of the citizen, and governance by the citizen would not be seen in the world again until the founding of the American Republic in the eighteenth century AD. However, the Roman Republic met its demise with the rise of populism and a lurch towards autocracy, and the rise of the Roman Empire. This has alarming parallels with the state of the contemporary world. The analysis then moves to the Chola Dynasty, which existed in the southern part of contemporary India. The empire of the Chola Dynasty included modern-day Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Cambodia. The Chola Empire traded with the Roman Empire, which had trading posts in southern India as well as with the Song Dynasty of China. The economy of the latter was built on trade. However, it was during the period of the Han Dynasty that paper and printing were invented, with gunpowder being invented in the ninth century AD. This was just before the period that encompassed the Song Dynasty, which may have been the first civilisation in the world to issue paper money. Furthermore, it was during the Song Dynasty that the world first witnessed an economic crisis due to inflation, as the Song government printed money to finance its defences. In this case, the Chinese were the first to recognise the relationship between the money supply and the price level.⁷ The Song Dynasty came close to leading China to be the first country in the world to experience industrialisation due to its economic prosperity through trade. However, Imperial China did not share the two cornerstones of the European market economy, which would have allowed it to foster entrepreneurship through incentivisation. Nevertheless, prices in ancient China were not set by the government, but by the market forces of supply and demand. The first of these cornerstones was the right of the individual to own property as well as to make legally enforceable contracts.⁸ The second cornerstone, which was absent in ancient China, was the lack of commercial institutions formalised and protected by the state’s legal institutions.⁹ In this context, the institutions which formed from the end of the Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Song Dynasty, while supporting a complex market as the one which existed in Medieval Europe, were of a completely different nature compared to their western counterparts. In this regard, the main institution that facilitated the maintenance of economic harmony in ancient China, was the hereditary structure of society.¹⁰ This particularly reflected in a social organisation characterised as being composed of the Imperial household and the nobility. The nobility owned all of the land, had access to education, and accumulated all of the wealth of Chinese society.¹¹ Furthermore, the nobility intermarried. The purpose of this setup was to ensure a smooth succession from one generation of the nobility to the next, ensuring that commoners remained commoners and were prevented from moving out of the category of their birth.¹² The purpose of government was, therefore, to regulate the economic activities of people so that this status quo could be maintained.¹³ In order to ensure this, certain areas of cities were restricted solely for the occupation of merchants and artisans and, in these areas, court officials would take charge of all aspects of manufacturing and business.¹⁴ However, from the eighth century AD to the thirteenth century AD, through the period of the Song Dynasty, the power of the nobility began to decline, and the social mobility of the commoner began to become more fluid.¹⁵ During the Song Dynasty, control of manufacture and business by merchants and artisans became indirect, with the formation of guilds through which some form of court supervision and regulation was practised.¹⁶ These guilds, while replacing the market economy which characteri...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Theory of Innovation and Causal Dynamics
• 3. Pre-History: Emergence and Palaeolithic to Bronze Age—10,000 BC to 800 BC
• 4. The Babylonian Empire: 1900 BC to 539 BC
• 5. Ancient Greece: 1100 BC to 30 BC
• 6. The Roman Empire (443 BC to 395 AD)
• 7. The Chola Dynasty: 350 BC to 1279 AD
• 8. The Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) and the Song Dynasty (960 AD to 1279 AD)
• 9. The Mongol Empire: 1206 AD to 1368 AD
• 10. The British Empire: 1603 AD to 1997 AD
• 11. Conclusion
• Back Matter