Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The high level equilibrium trap is a concept developed by Benjamin Elman to explain why China never underwent an indigenous Industrial Revolution. According to Elman, the non-mechanized processes in agriculture and industry in China were so well developed and efficient that they outcompeted early mechanized processes, thus making capital investment in mechanization unprofitable. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.