• Steve2 [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    You'd probably never pick up a pound of flour once a year. That shit used to spoil so fast, they added preservatives to let it keep for better transportation. If every town has a local mill, you'd just go and get flour when you need it and not enough that it'd spoil.

    I dunno about slavery. Abolitionists would still be around. It wasn't tech that made slavery unproductive compared to wage-labor it was the actual mode of production. I think capitalism is definitely blunted without easy access to energy.

    • comi [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It seems without cotton processing via steamdriven engines, collected cotton can only be processed manually/animals driven, so that collapses very fast, uk cannot feed so many animals, so primary commodities will have to be processed in places. This requires more man labor :shrug-outta-hecks:

      As I’ve mentioned, imperialism would be significantly challenged sans quick logistics (at least late imperialism with quick shipping and quick commodities movement).