Rereading the textbook before the midterm I was struck by the bit about China. The Sung dynasty controlled the economy of the country, largely through the development and control of its main product at the time: farm stuff. Now the Chinese goverment does basically the same thing but with manufacturing. Replace the word Sung with the Chinese government and agriculture with maufacturing and it would be hard to tell you werent reading a modern analysis. ITs not 100% but it really highlights why and how culture influences economics. And how slowly that sometimes changes