This Fleeting World

66 This Fleeting World
the modern era. During the final centuries of the agrarian era the pace
of change was already increasing. International GDP grew almost sixfold
between 1000 and 1820, whereas hardly any growth had occurred during
the previous millennium.
Rise of Commercial Societies
Second, most historians would agree that the modern revolution is connected
with the rise of more commercial societies. From the Scottish economist
Adam Smith onward economists have argued that a close link exists
between innovation and commercial activity. Smith argued that large markets
allow increased specialization, which encourages more precise and
productive labor. Equally important, entrepreneurs buying and selling in
competitive markets faced competition of a kind that landlords and governments
of the agrarian era could usually avoid. To survive, entrepreneurs
had to undercut their rivals by selling and producing goods at lower prices.
To do that meant trading and producing with maximum efficiency, which
usually meant finding and introducing the most up-to-date technology. As
commercial exchanges spread, so did the number of wage workers: people
who took their own labor to market. Because they competed with others
to find work, wage workers also had to worry about the cheapness and
productivity of their labor.
For these reasons the slow commercialization of societies that occurred
throughout the agrarian era probably raised productivity by stimulating
innovation. As the wealth, influence, and number of entrepreneurs and
wage earners increased, the societies in which they lived became more
open and receptive to innovation.
Development of a Single Global Network
Third, the linking of world zones into a single global network from the
sixteenth century provided a sharp stimulus to commercial growth and
technological innovation. In just a century or so the scale on which goods
and ideas could be exchanged almost doubled, and a huge variety of new
goods and ideas entered into global circulation. Maize, sugar, silver, coffee,
cotton, tobacco, potatoes, and the productive and commercial expertise
that went with these commodities were no longer confined to particular
regions but instead were available throughout the world. Even the trade in
people was internationalized. Before the sixteenth century the most active