A major thesis of Clark is that China at one time or another apparently had every condition or feature advanced to explain the sui generis Industrial Revolution, or that the advanced explanation fails on other grounds.

While neither you nor I can really speak to how much the Emperors respected debts in general, respecting debts and obligations in general is definitely in keeping with Confucian thought, and it's not as if English kings were all that respecting, even in those early times when the king was weakest:

"1290: King Edward I (1272-1307) invaded Scotland and would put John de Balliol (1292-1296) on the Scottish throne. The Exchequer of the Jews, a small Jewish Community in England earned its living by lending money and lived under Royal protection. A large number of Knights is in debt to the Jews. The Jews foreclosed on the Knights land for failure to pay and sold it to recover their money. The King feared land would thereby accumulate in too few hands and challenge the Kings power base. Using this pretext the Jews in London and York are massacred and the Jewish ghettos sacked during the Baron wars. The remaining Jews are forced to France after being relieved of their possessions."

Considering China's long history of commercial expansion and innovation and great merchant fortunes, with financial instruments and arrangements not exceeded until the 1500s in Europe, if even then, it's hard to think that China really suffered much from arbitrary and unjust laws.

Anyway, to this day, the English-speaking countries, which, with the exception of India (which you can almost regard as a medium-sized English-speaking country inside a much larger country) are the only countries using common-law judicial systems, are better at creating wealth than any other countries, even thoroughly Westernized ones like France.

Even including the Confucian countries like China & South Korea & Japan? Keep in mind that before the Lost Decade, Japan had a higher per capita than France (by almost $1000). And then there are other non-English-controlled countries like Argentina:

"Not so long ago Argentina really did seem ''doomed to success,'' to use a favorite rallying cry of Eduardo Duhalde, the country's fifth president since December. Early in the 20th century this was the seventh richest country in the world, with a per capita income ahead of those of Canada, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan and Spain and not far behind that of the United States."