There's a certain amount of aristocracy.

It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy.

Who would not wish to live in a meritocracy? It is certainly preferable to a plutocracy, in which wealth determines status, or a gerontocracy, in which age leads one to the top, or even an aristocracy, in which what counts are inherited titles and properties.

And the second reason is because, whereas in Europe and North America, the state's power is continuously challenged I mean in the European tradition, historically against the church, against other sectors of the aristocracy, against merchants and so on for 1,000 years, the power of the Chinese state has not been challenged.

He was a very wealthy man, and a sort of, part of the aristocracy of Britain, and on a Saturday night in Marylebone, were you part of the intelligentsia of that period, you would have been invited round to his house for a soiree and he invited everybody kings, the Duke of Wellington, many, many famous people and he would have shown you one of his mechanical machines.