This country sucks, and could learn from Norway

[Fragony]

Industrialization began in the netherlands when the agricultural potential was exploited. It began in Italy when the power of the countryside(feudal lords) had been broken and the power moved to the city.

Agriculture is of course a prerequisite for cities. True wealth, however, can only come about as a result of industrialization in the city. This occurs when investments in new land is no longer viable, which is what happened in Holland and Italy.

And both places did have a geographic sweet spot. When did I say otherwise? They both occupied ideal places for industrialization - instead of resource exploitation.

In case of the Netherlands it was more colonisation and trade that brought wealth, our golden age was way before industrialisation, we were pretty badly lagging behind other countries like the UK with that. The Netherlands is also blessed with natural infrastructure, these rivers have always come in handy, it's really easy to move stuff around for us. Small miracle we were never eaten by our neighbours because of that positioning.

//suckup mode, love it when you are being smug