Innovation requires people able to investigate technology over time rather than merely seize it from rivals. A thriving merchant class can supply technical specialists, commercial incentives, and exchanges between worlds that the existing hierarchy lacks. That independent capacity could threaten a ruler whose legitimacy rests on supposedly divine technology, so the proposal places researchers under priestly patronage. Discoveries can then be presented as service to the ruler, making sustained investigation compatible with the empire's religious politics.
Notable Point · 20:41-21:55
Create a protected class of researchers and merchants
A merchant and research class can create technical capacity, provided the ruler ties it into the priesthood and the empire's existing legitimacy.