The Song economic revolution
China industrialises in everything but name, seven centuries early.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 319 years
- Known to
- ± 20 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Under the Song from 960, iron output reaches levels Europe would not match until the eighteenth century, coal replaces charcoal for smelting, water-powered machinery spins hemp, canals and coastal shipping move bulk goods, and cities exceed a million people. Champa rice allows double cropping and population passes 100 million. Historians have argued for decades about why this did not become an industrial revolution.