Thank you Stephen. You mirror my thoughts. I often ponder why writing about this kind of stuff whether these kinds of paths different societies went down in the past, wether we are making similar paths today or whether as you remark that the world is too global today for anyone to head down special unique niches.

I suspect there are elements of it even today but that our world moves at a much faster pace. It takes less time for somebody to discover they have gone down a blind alley.

As you say it is interesting how different countries dominate different industries. Often you can see these patterns in how the success that exist today can be traced back to various decisions made long time ago.

Isn't it fascinating e.g. that the Netherlands was the country that pioneered microscopes and telescopes in the 1600s... the time period I am discussing. And today the whole semiconductor industry is built upon optics supplied by ASML, a Dutch company.

The Germans have a long history of metal working going back to medieval times, and from what I understand all sorts of factories even today buy specialized machines made in Germany. Even big factories in China.

Many things seem to even hold true at political level. I have often marveled at the large engineerig projects built in China today. It is strange reading history books about how Eurpeans marveled and large Chinese engineering projects hundreds of years ago as well.

Even the present system of government in China, I can see echos of old imperial China with its centralized control and emphasis on a meritocratic system. The focus on education. And educated elite.

The world is of course very different today, but it is sometimes fascinating how many relative differences and similarities one can reckognize. I lived several years in the Netherlands and read an English account of the Netherlands from 1600s. Oddly one can reckognize so much about values and attitudes. In how the English and Dutch are different. The same applies very much today 400 years later.