The Byzantine Empire which lasted from the fourth century until 1453 was initially based on the slave-holder economy as it initially formed the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. However, between the 6th and 9th century the ruling imperial dynasties oversaw the development of feudal property relations.
Likewise did dynasties like the Hohenzollern in Prussia/Germany, the Habsburgs in Austria-Hungary or the Romanovs in Russia rule their empires for centuries. Their state apparatus, based on the nobility and linked with large landowners, ruled and administered these territories first in the period of feudalism. However, in the course of the 19th century, they - in varying degrees – encouraged the creation of a bourgeoisie and capitalist property relations, opened the country for foreign investors, etc. In short, the old regime – initially based on feudalism – introduced new capitalist relations of production. They first served the class of the feudal landowner and, later, they served the bourgeoisie.
The Chinese Qing dynasty and the sultanate of the Ottoman Empire are further examples. These regimes also lasted for centuries–until 1911 and 1918 respectively–and were initially based on specific property relations which Marx called the Asiatic Mode of Production.
CAPACITY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPENDS ON RACE
Capital, vol. 3, chapter 47: "The possibility is here presented for definite economic development taking place, depending, of course, upon favourable circumstances, inborn racial characteristics, etc. . . "
RACE A DETERMINING FACTOR IN HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Engels: (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 3, p. 502.): "We regard economic conditions as the factor which ultimately determines historical development. But race is itself an economic factor".
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