尽管欧洲作出了很多努力,经济却一如既往地在衰退中徘徊。有识之士难掩心中担忧,欧洲正在陷入“日本化”衰退。创新是现代工业与现代经济的生命源泉,从历史看几乎每一次经济大腾飞背后,都与生产工具或生产方式的革新相关联。从某种程度上说,中国近几百年的历史,就是技术革新和生产方式滞后的历史,而这又直接决定了中国的政治经济和社会结构的变迁。与这一负面形象相对的,正是欧洲。工业革命改变了欧洲大陆的历史,又进而影响到全球进程。用英国学者麦迪森的话说,近代欧洲经济领先最根本的条件是欧洲人认识到人类具有通过理性考察和试验改变自然力 Despite the many efforts made in Europe, the economy is still hovering in recession. People of insight can hardly hide their worries that Europe is falling into a recession. Innovation is the source of life for modern industry and the modern economy. From the historical point of view, almost every time the economy takes off, innovation is linked to the innovation of production tools or production methods. To some extent, the history of China in recent centuries is a history of lagging technological innovation and mode of production, which in turn directly determines the changes in China’s political economy and social structure. As opposed to this negative image, it is Europe. The industrial revolution has changed the history of continental Europe, which in turn has an impact on the global process. In the words of the British scholar Maddison, the most fundamental condition for the modern European economic leadership is that Europeans have realized that mankind has the power to change nature through rational inspection and experimentation