Imperial China was one of the richest, most cultured and powerful states in history. Why it did not pass through an industrial revolution or secure itself an empire remains unresolved. This introduction to the scholarly debate on these questions concludes Imperial China's Confucian ethos may provide the answer. Further, it canvasses the extent to which a society's ethos impacts on its economic development and whether we should re-define our concepts of 'capitalism' and 'imperialism'.