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But looking at the American situation in the context of the broad sweep of world history, it’s amazing how dominant America has become, economically speaking. For most of human history, the most powerful economic powers, or those that produced the largest share of global economic output, were simply the countries that housed the most people and controlled the most land. One of the reasons for this is that industrialization is a very recent phenomenon. Up until about 300 years ago, economies across the world were mainly agricultural, with most of the value produced from the land.
但是，如果放在世界歷史進程這一大背景下進行審視，美國的情況仍然值得我們贊嘆：這個國家竟然能在世界經濟中取得如此重要的地位。因為在人類歷史上的大部分時間里，頂尖的經濟強國，或者說那些在全球經濟產出總量中占據最大份額的國家，大多是擁有最多人口并且控制著最多土地的國家。原因之一在于，工業化直到近幾個世紀才開始出現。直到大約300年以前，世界各地的經濟都多以農業為主，大部分的價值都由土地創造。
Nevertheless, certain civilizations developed huge advantages against their rivals. Economic historian Ian Morris says that for most of human history, a civilization’s economic strength depended largely on when it experienced an agricultural revolution. From there, it would take a nation thousands of years to turn itself into a true economic powerhouse. That is, until the industrial evolution upended everything. Here, in chronological order, are the five most powerful economic empires of all time:
然而在這個過程中，某些文明卻取得了競爭對手難以企及的優勢地位。經濟史學家伊恩•莫里斯指出，在人類歷史的大部分時間里，一個文明社會的經濟實力在很大程度上取決于當地農業革命發生的時間。在此之后，一個國家還需要花費數千年的時間，才能變成一個真正的經濟強國。也就是說，要等到產業的演進顛覆了一切之后才有可能實現。下面將按照時間先后順序，列出史上最強盛的五大經濟帝國：
