Semi-tangent: I am a bit partial to the idea that the abolition of Slavery in England itself and the restriction of the slave trade in the empire during the per

Semi-tangent: I am a bit partial to the idea that the abolition of Slavery in England itself and the restriction of the slave trade in the empire during the period of roughly 1772 until 1807 was partly responsible for the industrial revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807 Correlation does not equal causation, but there is a potential causal mechanism. This could have been a factor in the increase in labor costs in England itself at least, which helped drive the popularization of mechanized labor amplifying devices. The industrial revolution really took off a decade or two after the slave trade act of 1807, which would have been long enough for existing slaves to start aging out and since the act restricted the slave trade it would have been tough to replace them. If we'd roundly abolished slavery in ancient times I wonder if we'd be on our way to the Centauri system right now.