First of all, it's not a coincidence that in both England and in the Dutch Republic you had, along with the city-states of Northern Italy, you had the largest percentage of middle-class population that you could find in Europe.

英国和荷兰共和国,以及北意大利的城邦,拥有全欧洲比例最大的中产阶级人群,这是有它的必然性的

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选