Imperial Wealth Came From Force or Ideological Coercion

The great ancient wealth-amassers like Croesus and Darius were not innovators or entrepreneurs but acquired wealth through force or ideological force (e.g., Egyptians surrendering produce to a Pharaoh believed to be a god), and the resulting insecurity of property rights in such societies, plus the disincentive to invest in oneself, partly explains why the Greeks did comparatively better.