Sir Francis Bacon, for example, noted that the three inventions of gunpowder, the compass, and printing had utterly transformed Europe. Yet all three of these were known, indeed invented, in China. And they had not transformed China. These points conceded, however, the magnitude of the change in information processing and distribution resulting from printing takes your breath away. After Gutenberg the purchase of a book was a more significant decision than today, when buying a book consumes the money earned in 15 or 30 minutes of work by the average established member of the literati.
Modern science is unthinkable without the density of information exchange made possible by printing.
Liberalism has an elective affinity with printers' workshops.