It is certain that this story could shed important light on the nature of the modern international system, which is conventionally dated to the Peace of Westphalia, at mid-century. The property right, in particular, evolved in very interesting ways out of feudalism into the modern era. Feudalism was a many-layered system, where real property, sovereignty, and much else was subject to simultaneous, overlapping claims. To the extent that this is true, obviously, understanding the distinctively modern notion of property is indeed central to understanding these other phenomena. Particularly for those who are not familiar with the extensive literature on the historical development of all these things, Mr. Burch's account will be most thought-provoking.
Brevity comes at a cost, however.
The account is so compressed that it is difficult to follow at times. Many volumes have been written about the conceptual developments of the seventeenth century, and Mr Burch does perhaps as good a job as can be expected in compressing this matter, but readers not already familiar with this literature, who are the book's intended audience, may find the tale hard to follow. Others may wonder at his tendency to rely more on secondary than primary sources to tell his tale. This may also be a consequence of the book's brevity, but it is methodologically suspect. The book also reflects the secondary literature in dwelling overwhelmingly on the English case.