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Earlier quoted context omitted.
When & where do you think the Industrial Revolution happened?
Started late 18th century, after several decades of European countries and US states abolishing slavery ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slave... ). Why, when do you think it happened?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When & where do you think the Industrial Revolution happened?
Started late 18th century, after several decades of European countries and US states abolishing slavery ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slave... ). Why, when do you think it happened?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When & where do you think the Industrial Revolution happened?
The most obvious example of the negative influence of slavery on industrialization is the split of the early US into free and slave economies, and the near complete failure of the slave economy to industrialize.
We're in the middle of a second IR caused by the internet, for analogous reasons.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110306091458/http://chronopaus...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are you arguing slavery prevents industrial resolutions? > Didn't they coexist in some parts of the world? The American Civil War is an example of the two coexisting in the same country
The free states industrialized, and the slave states did not.
Rome was still primarily a slave/servant based economy, and one based on expansion and conquest. They lacked the mathematical and scientific foundations to radically change metallurgy, chemistry, and the other basics of industry. This article focuses a lot on economic possibilities and social change necessary for a revolution, while largely ignoring larger issues. You cant have an industrial revolution without then r…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Started late 18th century, after several decades of European countries and US states abolishing slavery ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slave... ). Why, when do you think it happened?
Serfdom was completely ended in England 200 years before the Industrial Revolution, and while slaves were still present in England, they were never a significant part of the labor pool. What other conditions had to be met, or is it simply a matter of waiting two centuries after eliminating slaves/serfs from the labor pool?
Rome was still primarily a slave/servant based economy, and one based on expansion and conquest. They lacked the mathematical and scientific foundations to radically change metallurgy, chemistry, and the other basics of industry. This article focuses a lot on economic possibilities and social change necessary for a revolution, while largely ignoring larger issues. You cant have an industrial revolution without then r…
The book the article is inspired by[0] is an alternate history set during the reign of Augustus. It takes as its point of departure the capture of Archimedes of Syracuse -- instead of being killed, he is brought back to Rome.
Note that this is the mid-Republic period, before the dynamics of conquest and slavery completely dominated the Roman economy.
The book is written by Helen Dale, who set out to write a legal alt-history, not an economics alt-history per se. She's got the background for it: she's an award-winning novelist, studied classics at Oxford and Roman law at Edinburgh. My gut feeling is that any objection you have, she's thought about already.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Wicked-Book-One-Rules/dp/0994...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most obvious example of the negative influence of slavery on industrialization is the split of the early US into free and slave economies, and the near complete failure of the slave economy to industrialize.
I'm not saying the elimination of slavery/serfdom isn't a necessary precursor; I just don't think it was a sufficient condition. What is the complete set of necessary and sufficient preconditions to have an Industrial Revolution?
1. economic freedom
2. printing press
3. a view of the universe that it follows rules that can be discovered and modeled in the small
4. the scientific method
5. protection of property rights, enforcement of contracts, rule of law rather than corruption