Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“[I]f Smith is correct, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places poorly suited to produce export goods, well suited to produce subsistence goods. For similar reasons, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places where transport costs were high — most obviously places far from good water transport, which in the Middle Ages was typically much less costly than overland transport. The theory is, at least in principle, a testable one.” (05/19/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/testing-smiths-explanation-for-the