One word: slavery. As long as you have cheap labor (in the form of slaves), the economic incentive to invent labor-saving devices is much smaller. It’s no acc

One word: slavery. As long as you have cheap labor (in the form of slaves), the economic incentive to invent labor-saving devices is much smaller. It’s no accident that the industrial revolution only came after slavery (and it’s ugly cousin, serfdom) was abolished.