In the early fourteenth century, England was open to wool imports from numerous countries. The English then discovered that Flemish wool was of superior quality. Rather than settling for imported Flemish wool, King Edward III decided to improve English wool to compete both locally and abroad with Flemish wool. He granted John Kempe, a Flemish weaver, a “patent” for weaving in the Flemish method— a special privilege, because he was not an English guild member. This “patent” encouraged Kempe to set up shop in England and teach the English his method. However, this was only a primitive form of a “patent.” It was granted on a case- by- case basis, without disclosure of the technique to the public and without a guarantee for anyone to apply and receive a patent. Yet, this example shows how openness to outside trade and competition against the Flemish prompted Edward III to grant this primitive patent.

Many such primitive patents did include monopolies, such as the offer of the Duke of Saxony in 1398 to grant a monopoly to anyone who could devise a method of papermaking. However, they were not modern patents in the sense that they did not entail the disclosure inherent to modern patents: granting a limitedtime monopoly in exchange for disclosing the specifics of the invention. Not until 1624 did the modern system of patenting emerge in England, triggering first a trickle and then a stream of innovations. In 1790, the United States passed a patent statute that was even more accessible to innovators than that in England. Consequently, that law spawned the growth of innovations in the United States. Countries that embraced the patent system became hubs of innovation, some of then quickly transformed into global economic and military powers (see Chapters 10 and 11).

Why was modern patenting established in England? Why did it then flourish in the United States? Why did it not develop earlier in other parts of Europe, the Ottoman Empire and China? This chapter addresses these issues. Empowerment, openness and competition were important drivers of the early establishment of the patent system in England and the United States. However, the absence or low level of these same drivers may have caused the late appearance or non- appearance of the patent system in other parts of Europe, the Ottoman Empire and China.