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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
Chapter 4: The Invention of Invention
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Adam Smith: 1776 Technological Innovation encouraged by:
Division of Labor Widening Market Both were already happening during Middle Ages
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Important Middle Ages Technologies
Water Wheel Eyeglasses Mechanical Clock Printing Gunpowder
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Water Wheel Revived in 10th century
By 1086 England had 5,600 water mills Improved by dams and ponds Cranks and toothed gears made possible Change direction Power at a distance Rotary and reciprocal motion
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Water Wheel Applications: Grinding grain Hammering metal
Rolling and drawing sheet metal and wire Mashing hops for beer Pulping rags for paper Fulling (pounding) cloth Transformed the woolen industry
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Water Wheel “ Paper, which was manufactured by hand and foot for a thousand years or so following its invention by the Chinese and adoption by the Arabs, was manufactured mechanically as soon as it reached medieval Europe in the thirteenth century… Paper had traveled nearly halfway around the world, but no culture or civilization on its route had tried to mechanize its manufacture” Europe was a power-based civilization
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Eyeglasses By age 40, get farsightedness occurs
Eyeglasses added 20 years to the working life of skilled craftsmen: Scribes and readers Instrument and toolmakers Close weavers Metal workers
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Eyeglasses Invented in Pisa 13th century
By 15th century Italy making thousands spectacles Eyeglasses encouraged invention of fine instruments Gauges Micrometers Fine wheel cutters Precision tools
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Eyeglasses Knowledge of lenses produced other inventions
Telescope Microscope Europe had monopoly on corrective lenses for years
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Mechanical Clock Before its invention: sundials and water clocks
both unreliable Reliable time important Church seven daily prayer offices Organize time in cities Time to wake, sleep Time to work, go home Time to put out fires (covre-feu became curfew)
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Mechanical Clock Invented in Italy and/or England 13th century
Early clocks inaccurate Relentless pressure to improve technique and design Clockmakers lead the way in accuracy and precision Miniaturization Correcting errors Searching for new and better 14th century clock
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Mechanical Clock Undermined Church authority Every town wanted one
equal hours for day and night a new concept Resisted by the church for a century Every town wanted one Public clocks installed in towers Conquerors seized as spoils of war Symbol of secular authority Allowed individual autonomy Work now measured by time increased productivity Bern, Switzerland
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Mechanical Clock European monopoly on clocks for 300 years
No one else could make them to European standards Swiss watch mechanism
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Mechanical Clock Chinese treated time as confidential aspect of sovereignty, not to be shared with the people Chinese reluctant to acknowledge European technological superiority Moslems did not establish public clocks because it would undermine religious authority Chinese water clock
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Printing Invented in China in 9th century
Chinese language not well suited for movable type not widely used Chinese discouraged dissent and new ideas Chinese movable type
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Printing Europe already interested in written word
Government paper work written in common language: not Latin Scribes could not keep up with demand Gutenberg Bible printed in 1452 By 1501, millions of books published in Europe Gutenberg Bible
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Printing Moslems did not accept printing
Printed Koran unacceptable India also did not accept printing first printing press in 19th century Europe: Church tried to stop common language printing of Bible But political authority too fragmented to stop it
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Gunpowder Invented by Chinese in 11th century
Used as incendiary in fireworks, war Tubed flame lances Bombards Arrow launchers Fire thunder Chinese fought nomads Not siege warfare
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Gunpowder Europeans improved gunpowder
Europeans focused on range and weight of projectiles: siege warfare With improved metal casting, made world’s best cannon Thus military supremacy
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Why did Europe get Ahead?
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Islam Islam from 750 to 1100 A.D. far surpassed Europe in
Science, Technology Astronomy, Mathematics Invented algebra Islam was Europe’s teacher Then Islamic science was denounced as heresy by religious zealots Islam does not separate religious from secular as does Christianity New ideas dried up under theological pressure
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China Chinese inventions: Wheel barrow Stirrup and rigid horse collar
Compass Paper Printing Gunpowder Porcelain Chinese paper
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China Water driven machine for spinning hemp in 12th century
500 years before Industrial Revolution in England Blast furnaces for smelting iron: 125,000 tons pig iron in 11th century Amount reached by Britain 700 years later But both technologies fell into disuse
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Reasons for Chinese Stagnation
Absence of a free market and property rights Chinese state always interfering with private enterprise Taking over or prohibiting lucrative activities Manipulating prices Exacting bribes Curtailing private enrichment Government strangled initiative increased costs of transactions, diverted talent from commerce and industry Ming Dynasty Emperor
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Ming Dynasty Ming dynasty in 15th century first promoted maritime trade, then prohibited it China became isolated Before Europeans arrived Chinese fleet huge, advanced Huge ships compared to European By the time Europeans arrived, Chinese fleet not a threat Ming Dynasty ship compared to Columbus ship
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Reasons for Chinese Stagnation
Confinement of women to the home made it impossible to exploit them in textile factories Chinese society totalitarian State monopolies on Salt Iron Tea Alcohol Foreign Trade Education Written material Ming Dynasty women
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Reasons for Chinese Stagnation
Regulations on Clothing Construction of houses Colors worn Music Festivals Rules from birth to death Endless paperwork and harassment of people Result: no one tried. Why try? Ming Dynasty
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Europe Much less interference
Innovation, emulation challenged forces of conservatism Sense of progress replaced reverence for authority Freedom in all domains Copernicus
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Why Europe? Judeo-Christian Beliefs Market, free enterprise
respect for manual labor subordination of nature to man sense of linear time (not cyclical): progress Market, free enterprise Innovation worked and paid Rulers limited in ability to prevent innovation Trade network: not controlled by one empire
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