Europe was difficult to unify politically, because it was divided by water and mountains. Starting from the eleventh-century, a merchant class was able to migrate more freely across this divided landscape. Latin was the unifying language. States began competing with each other in order to attract merchants and intellectuals. The merchants, once established within a state, became a powerful political lobby. This eventually led to the development of ... > ... a new and sophisticated state machine that was strong enough to protect property and trade, but adequately restrained by checks, balances, and countervailing power, to minimize confiscation or overtaxation, to protect a relatively autonomous legal system, and to allow the development of self-governing organizational forms that could engage in productive activity and reap the rewards of innovation.^[Hodgson, Geoffrey Martin. Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2015.] Compare this to: [[Modern states are founded on individual autonomy]]