They invented the abacus, the crossbow and the Four Great Inventions of the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing which Francis Bacon considered the most important inventions facilitating the West’s transformation from Dark Ages to the Modern world [Lin]. They possessed these a thousand years before Europe did.
The Chinese were able to produce paper but they didn’t had water driven paper mills that were able to produce cheap paper. There paper wasn’t much cheaper then parchment/ vellum the way the European paper at the dawn of the printing press. That printing press was also much more cost effective then the way the Chinese printed.
Nuernberg and Mainz were Free Cities that allowed a debt funded startup like Gutenberg’s to employ over a dozen people on an economically driven project that was about selling books.
In the Chinese empire it wasn’t possible for traders that wanted to make money to own private property without government interference in the same way.
When Europe sailed over the ocean, they did it for reasons of trade. When China did it, they did it to bring back gifts for the emperor.
The Chinese were able to produce paper but they didn’t had water driven paper mills that were able to produce cheap paper. There paper wasn’t much cheaper then parchment/ vellum the way the European paper at the dawn of the printing press. That printing press was also much more cost effective then the way the Chinese printed.
Nuernberg and Mainz were Free Cities that allowed a debt funded startup like Gutenberg’s to employ over a dozen people on an economically driven project that was about selling books.
In the Chinese empire it wasn’t possible for traders that wanted to make money to own private property without government interference in the same way.
When Europe sailed over the ocean, they did it for reasons of trade. When China did it, they did it to bring back gifts for the emperor.