ClippingKK

growth under authoritarian, extractive political institutions in China, though likely to continue for a while yet, will not translate into sustained growth, supported by truly inclusive economic institutions and creative destruction.

these conflicts would turn into bloody civil wars and would create economic ruin and unparalleled human suffering—as well as cause state failure.

Books also undermine the power of those who control oral knowledge, since they make that knowledge readily available to anyone who can master literacy. This threatened to undermine the existing status quo, where knowledge was controlled by elites. The Ottoman sultans and religious establishment feared the creative destruction that would result. Their solution was to forbid printing.

而这里讲的“民少相公多”中“相公”指的是什么？在当时本是指俗称的太监。当然，这里指的不是真的太监，实际上讲的就是那些由于皇上宠爱而拥有权力的县太爷之类，他们本质上对皇上而言和我们是“平等”的臣民。县太爷不是我们的主人，我们也不是他的农奴，但是他比我们的主人可怕得多。县太爷治下，中国会出现大量饿死人的事，农奴制下反倒是没有这种事的

without a centralized state to provide order and enforce rules and property rights, inclusive institutions could not emerge.

受宠的奴才整不受宠的奴才往往比主人整奴才还要凶狠，他们有狐假虎威之横暴，而无损及己物之顾惜。这种现象应该说是人之常情，即使在官僚制内部也有这样的现象

Even trade within the Americas was heavily regulated. For example, a merchant in a colony such as New Spain, roughly modern Mexico, could not trade directly with anyone in New Granada, modern Colombia. These restrictions on trade within the Spanish Empire reduced its economic prosperity and also, indirectly, the potential benefits that Spain could have gained by trading with another, more prosperous empire. Nevertheless, they were attractive because they guaranteed that the silver and gold would keep flowing to Spain.

这种争论说破天了，也没法变化为一种近代意义上对于国家权力和责任问题的真正意义上的左、右派之争。他们只是站在皇帝和官僚的角度阐发各自的立场并抢夺施政资源，每一方的每一次失败都会带来一轮清洗，这种反复震荡都没有跳出循环的“怪圈”