The Eurasian Miracle

1 Alternation or supremacy? 1

2 Why European and not Eurasian? 4

3 Domestic aspects of the ‘miracle’ 20

4 Eurasia and the Bronze Age 41

5 Merchants and their role in alternation 57

6 Merchant wealth and puritanical asceticism 66

7 Towards a knowledge society 79

8 The temporary advantage in alternation of the post-Renaissance west 94

9 Alternation in Eurasia 106

Appendix 1 Arguments of the Europeanists 115

Appendix 2 Water in east and west 127

Notes 131

References 139

Index 151