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There was also a fourth factor, the concentration of a literate and mechanically skilled[1] workforce in the areas that industrialised first, the Midlands. Mak

There was also a fourth factor, the concentration of a literate and mechanically skilled[1] workforce in the areas that industrialised first, the Midlands. Making ploughs and other agricultural machinery, cutlery, military arms, and other bits of machinery (axles for carts and carriages for instance). The exploitation of coal for kinetic energy allowed the industrial revolution to continue, but yes, it certainly got underway well before coal had any contribution of this sort. I would add that because nearly all of it is invisible, the role of heat in industrial processes is now widely underestimated. Making salt, the precursor for many chemicals as well as having many uses itself; scouring wool, making bricks (way more efficient than using stone), and many more. Coal enabled all of these to be scaled up well beyond the carrying capacity of any country's forests. Edit: oh, and of course iron smelting! 1. But not particularly well paid.

tuatoru 2y ago
And a sixth factor, North-West Europe's backwardness in anthropological terms, which enabled labour mobility, moving to where the work was. Most of Eurasia had a communitarian family form, in which adult sons and their spouses lived with their parents, and were married young, while still economically dependent on them. In NW Europe the ancient neolocal nuclear family form was still in use. Adult children moved out of the parental home on their own marriage. This meant they could move to wherever there were good work prospects rather than being stuck on the family farm. In nearly all of Eurasia getting the necessary urban workforces would have been a difficult job.
- bowsamic 2y ago
  Do you have any evidence that the nuclear family is “ancient”? I would have expected they the communal form predated it, but you seem to be implying that it was a later development
- hosh 2y ago
  And yet, the Song dynasty had a proto-industrial revolution, complete with deep mining for salt and natural gas, water powered forges, blast furnaces for steel, and so forth. This would be between 960 - 1279. China had a labor surplus for much of its history. There were not enough economic opportunities, and ever growing numbers of marginalized young men with varying skills in militia training leading to increasing banditry, uprisings, and so forth.
  - tuatoru 2y ago
    Yes, the labor surplus was caused by China's family structure. In China women married as teens and started bearing children young. In Northwest Europe, women married when they and their prospective husbands had saved enough to form a new household, typically 24 to 27 years of age. That is several fewer children per woman. It was also self-balancing. When population was high, wages decreased, so women married later, so population decreased in the next generation. And vice versa. In China, childbearing was not regulated by economic conditions so the population was controlled via famine, which tends to bring riots, banditry and so on with it.
    - charlysl 2y ago
      + Chinese polygamy, as Marco Polo observed, allowing well-off men to parallelize reproduction
    - card_zero 2y ago
      It's ... a theory. Close inspection of European history may reveal a system of dowries and a lot of marrying young, large families, and famines (e.g. in Bohemia) even in the 18th century, but I'm quibbling.
      - tuatoru 2y ago
        North-west Europe. The Seine Basin, the Low countries, and England primarily. Scandinavia and (iirc) Scotland had stem families. Ireland and most of the rest of Europe, including Bohemia, had something closer to the communitarian type, so famines there are unsurprising. If Emmanuel Todd is to be believed, on this, his primary area of expertise. Like Noam Chomsky he branched out into other topics later. Of course there were other regulators in China. Female infanticide was a primary one. Sex ratio imbalances also cause trouble though.
        goeiedaggoeie 2y ago
        Do you have a source you can point me to regarding sex imbalances in china historically. demographics, and its sibling, economic growth are super fascinating subjects.

tuatoru 2y ago

And a sixth factor, North-West Europe's backwardness in anthropological terms, which enabled labour mobility, moving to where the work was. Most of Eurasia had a communitarian family form, in which adult sons and their spouses lived with their parents, and were married young, while still economically dependent on them. In NW Europe the ancient neolocal nuclear family form was still in use. Adult children moved out of the parental home on their own marriage. This meant they could move to wherever there were good work prospects rather than being stuck on the family farm. In nearly all of Eurasia getting the necessary urban workforces would have been a difficult job.

bowsamic 2y ago
Do you have any evidence that the nuclear family is “ancient”? I would have expected they the communal form predated it, but you seem to be implying that it was a later development
hosh 2y ago
And yet, the Song dynasty had a proto-industrial revolution, complete with deep mining for salt and natural gas, water powered forges, blast furnaces for steel, and so forth. This would be between 960 - 1279. China had a labor surplus for much of its history. There were not enough economic opportunities, and ever growing numbers of marginalized young men with varying skills in militia training leading to increasing banditry, uprisings, and so forth.
- tuatoru 2y ago
  Yes, the labor surplus was caused by China's family structure. In China women married as teens and started bearing children young. In Northwest Europe, women married when they and their prospective husbands had saved enough to form a new household, typically 24 to 27 years of age. That is several fewer children per woman. It was also self-balancing. When population was high, wages decreased, so women married later, so population decreased in the next generation. And vice versa. In China, childbearing was not regulated by economic conditions so the population was controlled via famine, which tends to bring riots, banditry and so on with it.
  - charlysl 2y ago
    + Chinese polygamy, as Marco Polo observed, allowing well-off men to parallelize reproduction
  - card_zero 2y ago
    It's ... a theory. Close inspection of European history may reveal a system of dowries and a lot of marrying young, large families, and famines (e.g. in Bohemia) even in the 18th century, but I'm quibbling.
    - tuatoru 2y ago
      North-west Europe. The Seine Basin, the Low countries, and England primarily. Scandinavia and (iirc) Scotland had stem families. Ireland and most of the rest of Europe, including Bohemia, had something closer to the communitarian type, so famines there are unsurprising. If Emmanuel Todd is to be believed, on this, his primary area of expertise. Like Noam Chomsky he branched out into other topics later. Of course there were other regulators in China. Female infanticide was a primary one. Sex ratio imbalances also cause trouble though.
      - goeiedaggoeie 2y ago
        Do you have a source you can point me to regarding sex imbalances in china historically. demographics, and its sibling, economic growth are super fascinating subjects.