not much richer than the most spectacular Asian
civilizations in India or China, Europe differed from these
polities in some key ways. For example, it had developed
representative institutions of a sort unseen there. These
were to play a critical role in the development of inclusive
institutions. As we will see in the next two chapters, small
institutional differences would be the ones that would really
matter within Europe; and these favored England, because
it was there that the feudal order had made way most
comprehensively for commercially minded farmers and
independent urban centers where merchants and
industrialists could flourish. These groups were already
demanding more secure property rights, different economic
institutions, and political voice from their monarchs. This
whole process would come to a head in the seventeenth
century.