Скачать или смотреть The Power of Water: How Water Transportation Drove Economic Development

(This is a video version of the Substack essay - The Power of Water: How Water Transportation Drove Economic Development. https://exchangism.substack.com/p/the... ).

Waterways have quietly shaped the course of civilization. Long before trains or highways, rivers, canals, and coastlines connected people, goods, and ideas at a scale land transport could never match. Adam Smith saw this clearly: a small crew on a single ship could move what once took hundreds of men and horses. From the coal canals of industrial England to the rice boats of Edo Japan, water transport didn’t just make trade cheaper—it expanded markets, fueled urban growth, and laid the foundations for modern prosperity. In this video, we’ll explore how geography and waterways turned certain regions into the world’s first economic powerhouses.