Congratulations on getting such great feedback. My reaction to some of the responses is that a lot of factors had to coincide in order to get to the point where 1870 really mattered: the Scientific Revolution; the Enlightenment; the fortuity of cheap coal and the high cost of labor in the one country where that really mattered (thank you Robert Allen); the availability of new (stolen) land in the Americas to feed a growing population; the ability of the British to exploit trade in slaves and drugs (tobacco, tea, sugar, rum, opium) to concentrate capital in the textile industrial revolution; and undoubtedly more. But recognizing those factors doesn't detract from your identification of 1870 as the key point, the one where people figured out how to organize and productively use those factors in the dramatic expansion of productivity. It's kind of like the evolution of genus homo -- lots of changes occurred slowly over 2.5 million years, but that doesn't stop us from recognizing the explosion of progress starting 40,000 years ago or so when it all came together in homo sapiens sapiens.
Congratulations on getting such great feedback. My reaction to some of the responses is that a lot of factors had to coincide in order to get to the point where 1870 really mattered: the Scientific Revolution; the Enlightenment; the fortuity of cheap coal and the high cost of labor in the one country where that really mattered (thank you Robert Allen); the availability of new (stolen) land in the Americas to feed a growing population; the ability of the British to exploit trade in slaves and drugs (tobacco, tea, sugar, rum, opium) to concentrate capital in the textile industrial revolution; and undoubtedly more. But recognizing those factors doesn't detract from your identification of 1870 as the key point, the one where people figured out how to organize and productively use those factors in the dramatic expansion of productivity. It's kind of like the evolution of genus homo -- lots of changes occurred slowly over 2.5 million years, but that doesn't stop us from recognizing the explosion of progress starting 40,000 years ago or so when it all came together in homo sapiens sapiens.
Have you had a chance to watch the Rings of Power or House of the Dragon? I suspect you've been busy....
I'm enjoying both and am amazed to see the amount of money spent on putting high fantasy on TV