How does invention in ancient china drives economy growth?

Question

How does invention in ancient china drives economy growth?

Answer 1

Are you asking how it DID drive economic growth? or about the relationship between invention in ancient China and economic growth today?

If the former, the answer is that to all intents and purposes, it didn't. It is remarkable just how many inventions were used as toys but never really developed or taken full advantage of.

No one is really sure why. My theory is that there was no incentive to rock the boat. One of the elements of technological change is that it creates new wealth.

In the U.S. we all recognize names like Bill Gates, Henry Ford, etc. All of these became rich because of the their introduction of new technology. Similarly, an earlier generation saw a similar rise with the robber barons in the U.S. and the industrialists of England,

Any such change is profoundly threatening to the existing elites. Even if they do not lose any money, just having others with money makes them relatively less well off, dilutes their power, etc. If they have any control over the situation, why should they allow the threat to continue?

In Europe, the competition between various countries provided incentive to be strong - the connection between a strong economy and a strong military were was well understood. However, in China, the elite saw no enemies, certainly none that better economic development would help defeat.

Adam Smith was famous for his appeal to the division of labor as the source of productivity improvements. However, division of labor was more advanced in the East (India, China, Japan, etc.) than it was in the West, yet they didn't see the kind of productivity improvements that Adam Smith saw in England.

One reason for this is that those in the East did not have any incentive to improve their productivity. Almost all were in positions that would not change no matter how much more productive they were. No incentive to change, no change.