Dwarkesh Patel

You're already economically on top through the power of agriculture.

It makes sense for it to have been a sort of industrial backwater area that what was England producing?

Crappy quality wool?

England was so aware that it couldn't process wool into high quality without masses of olive oil, which it couldn't produce, that England just exported its crude wool to Florence in order to have Florence, with its olive oil reserves, produce the fine quality.

Think about how a wool suit isn't itchy, but a wool blanket often is.

That wool suit isn't itchy because lots of olive oil went into the process of producing it, at least at pre-modern tech levels.

So do you want England to produce your itchy wool that people will only pay a small amount for, or do you want to export it?

It makes sense for it to have been somewhere industrially ambitious that wasn't already economically on top.

to have done it.

So that's one reason that industrialization doesn't kindle in Italy.

Italy is agricultural land and finance world.

It doesn't feel like it needs new industry.

Another factor is mining and so on.

This land is more valuable as a farm than it is as a mine.

You don't want to rip it up.

Interesting.

Right.

Another is it's so subdivided because those rich cities are still mostly independent, whereas a centralized crown is

in England is more able to pass legislation to facilitate a massive transformation.

No city really wants to be the one where the giant industrialization is happening.