I would be happy to send to Bruce something of mine that calrifies my
position on the related questions he raises. but in brief
1. yes the tech innovation does come from the periphery/margin - but
not from outside the system.
2. the periph/margin is pressureds into the tech innov by and takes
advantage of crisis in the center to make its NIE move like east asia
today. thats waht West Europe did around 1800.
3. that means the "system" was loing pre-exiting, and both Asia and
Europe were in it, only in different positions, and these poistions
within the system changed after 1800 - temporarily!
4. but thats not because Europe had different or better "institutions"
that grew up there between 11/13/1500 and 1800, and still less for
"exceptionalist" European reasons, and to call these "capitalist" does
not clarify , but instead obscures what happend on a world economic
level, and THAT it happend on a world econ level but within Europe and not
IN europe and spread to elsewhere. THAT is why what happend in China and
India before 1800 is relavant to this story, which was Bruce's first
question.
regards
gunder frank