The article challenges the idea of European exceptionalism by highlighting the gap between Europe's modern market dynamics and its historical past. The author argues that the focus on market-driven growth has led to ignoring the details and mixed effects of government policies and local customs in European development. Instead, the author proposes a different approach that compares areas directly without introducing arbitrary continental units, generating new questions that shed light on similarities in agricultural, commercial, and proto-industrial development among various parts of Eurasia as late as 1750.