Comment by Findeton
Nah they were too centralised. Actually I think the Greeks were closer by having city-states and inventing the aeolipile.
Nah they were too centralised. Actually I think the Greeks were closer by having city-states and inventing the aeolipile.
The essay you're looking for is "IF ALEXANDER THE GREAT HAD LIVED ON" in Part IV of Some Problems of Greek History, Arnold Toynbee 1969.
Thanks for the pointer. Looking forward to tracking down a copy.
Honestly I thought industrialization was more about the relationship between labor, commodity and manufacturing than any particular technology.
It's a mode of production more than anything.
For China you had river power which also served as a major trading round.
One of the big blockers was that trading and banking was seen by many cultures as only moral if exercised without profit. Intentionally profiting was often seen as a form of theft so you needed the moral reclassifications of these social relationships before industrialization was incentivized.
So without moral judgment approving accumulation, your assembly line is just a logistical curiosity and not a revolutionary device.
The "Who invented the steam engine?"[0] section of "The Book of General Ignorance" refers to a "brilliant essay" by Arnold Toynbee that imagines a global Greek empire enabled by a rail network derived from combining the aeolopile and the Diolkos. I'd love to read that essay but they don't cite it and I have yet to come across it myself.
[0]: https://books.google.com/books?id=1Mjd2GCRPmAC&newbks=1&newb...