ABSTRACT
Around the year 1700, much of humanity was stuck in the mud. Unimproved roads made it extremely costly to move goods and people overland. Many rivers had navigation problems and ocean vessels were slow and risky. Of course there were exceptions. Some roads leading into major cities were well maintained and constructed using techniques dating to the Romans. Navigable rivers like the Thames in Britain or the Yangtze in China served as major thoroughfares for their respective economies. But these were areas privileged by geography. Most of the pre-industrial world languished under poor transport systems.
