It was also desirable, because rapid growth was hitting environmental limits.
And the total system has to operate within the environmental limits of our one planet.
The feudal model of agriculture collided, first, with environmental limits and then with a massive external shock – the Black Death.
Conveniently, keeping the strict environmental limits "local" means that there's one huge elephant in the room: carbon dioxide emissions.
In a truly circular economy, powered by renewable energy, economic growth could be decoupled from environmental limits.
How can a market economy adapt to a situation in which economic growth runs up against environmental limits?
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, said: "A third runway will only go ahead if strict environmental limits are met".
For some (including myself) it is as central to the notion of sustainable development as living within environmental limits.
And, unlike Brazil and other countries with a lot of indigenous mahogany, there are no environmental limits on harvesting from tree farms.
In an ever more crowded world facing environmental limits, the push is on to create entire communities with reduced needs for energy, water, land and other resources.
Previously in some cases the fines were so low it was cheaper to violate environmental limits than install pollution-reducing equipment.
