Re:How did Europe become the richest part of the world?
by danans on Sunday March 20, 2022 @11:38AM
(#30743555)
> In Bangladesh, food just jumps into your basket. Meanwhile Europeans were hacking away at soil that freezes for large parts of the year.
What you state as a contradiction could instead be seen as the explanation.
When food "jumps into your basket", you don't need to focus as much on efficiency and on driving towards automation, which arguably was the ultimate drive of the industrial revolution, upon which most of the modern wealth of Europe was built.
The lower effort to food ratio in warm humid places also allows you to support more population, which in turn reduces the need for automation because of the plentiful labor. The spectacular populations of China and India despite their less developed past is basically due to the incredible caloric productivity of rice agriculture.
Also, there is the general stability of most of Europe with respect to weather. It is a northern climate but tempered by the gulf stream.
What you state as a contradiction could instead be seen as the explanation.
When food "jumps into your basket", you don't need to focus as much on efficiency and on driving towards automation, which arguably was the ultimate drive of the industrial revolution, upon which most of the modern wealth of Europe was built.
The lower effort to food ratio in warm humid places also allows you to support more population, which in turn reduces the need for automation because of the plentiful labor. The spectacular populations of China and India despite their less developed past is basically due to the incredible caloric productivity of rice agriculture.
Also, there is the general stability of most of Europe with respect to weather. It is a northern climate but tempered by the gulf stream.