I remember a piece posted to HN some years ago—some kind of scientific paper, by Indian authors, explaining why Indian food tastes good in some kind of scientific sense. I have not stopped thinking about that paper.

Please do share!

But what leads to the extensive trade network? Looking at a world map[1], why should Britain be near the centre of anything? We’re on the west edge of Europe, only accessible by water, as far north as Canada. Britain’s trade was related to understanding of scurvy[2] which lead to more long sea voyages, steam ships from the industrial Revolution which was also a British thing some time after cutting down all the trees to make ships and having to find coal asa fuel instead of wood, and relentless cruel and exploitative colonisation to extract riches and desirables from all over. Whether that part is cultural or not I have no comment, but you can’t really go to “large trade network not culture” without explaining the large trade network and why other countries didn’t build the same but could have - or apparently could have.

And trade doesn’t seem to explain things like the discovery of penicillin, or John Snow’s tracing of cholera to a water pump and starting epidemiology; were they doing that to profit? What about when Rutherford split the atom in Manchester in 1918, but the atomic bomb and atomic fusion both came from America decades later, did trade have to move to support that? Why didn’t that instead contribute to Britain leading the world trade in atomics?

[1] https://onewayuk.com/wp-content/uploads/Inflatable-Globe.jpg

[2] https://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm

The "only accessible by water" part meant that Britain had a much stronger naval tradition than - say - Germany. That tradition also looked westwards to the relatively open opportunities provided by the Caribbean and eventually Canada and North America, more than it looked towards South America (too far away) and the Mediterranean (already saturated.)

Originally the tradition was based on outright state-sanctioned piracy. But that's incidental.

Establishing a strong Atlantic trade gave Britain the technology, the money, and the economic and military traditions to colonise India and parts of Africa. Trade also drove the Industrial Revolution at home, because there was insatiable demand for goods and they also had to be transported across the country. So: mechanised factories, ships, and railways, and traditions of engineering, research, investment, and military organisation to support them all.

The failures of WWI started to undermine the empire, and WWII all-but killed it. Technological dominance fell with it. The UK was basically bankrupt after WWII and the US took over as a hegemon. After a few humbling experiences - especially Suez - the UK lost its imperial sense of self. Technological decline followed.

The UK's ruling class has never been able to come to terms with loss of empire, which is why we have silly spasms like Brexit - a small country trying to pretend to itself that it's a much bigger country.

Ironically the UK still punches above its weight in a number of areas, including the arts, finance, law, and STEM. But instead of promoting those talents, the ruling class has damaged them even further in search of a fantasy of empire that hasn't been current for over a century.

> including the arts, finance, law, and STEM

Well, most of it because their heirs kept their language. And cultural products in English are easily exportable

So yeah, still some gains from their empire days. Now the main export of their Monarchy is celebrity gossip

Look at an ocean-centric world map[0], and you will see why Britain could waive the rules[1], back in the day when she ruled the waves[2].

[0] https://porteconomicsmanagement.org/wp-content/uploads/Map-P...

[1] the Royal Navy of the time had a substantial advantage: its ships cruised needing to put into port only for food & water. The US Navy needs oil.

[2] ever since Suez, however, the mantle of Oceania has firmly descended upon the States, and Britain has been demoted from empire to Airstrip One.

That doesn't help me see why compared to any other coastal country. OK India has a harder time reaching USA, but are you saying that trade and an "empire of science" comes down to ease of connectivity with the USA? And then why not Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, etc?

The use of sailing ships also wasn't a British-only thing; a reason the British Navy could sail unusually far is suggested in the article I linked - an understanding of scurvy prevention which other countries didn't have.

Continental europe was (a) army rather than navy focused, and (b) had traditionally used trade routes running through the Med, to Venice and Genoa, etc.

So continental europeans had neither budget nor reason to develop long range cruising, whereas Britain, out on the very end of the existing trade chain and maintaining a large navy against invasion, had both.

That leaves Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. Spain is well known for having succumbed to the resource-curse from New World metals; Portugal had (due to the papal agreement) to go the other way, and I was under the impression they were very successful doing that until something (what? possibly british pressure?[0]) cut them off[1].

That leaves Ireland. (who may not have been so worried about specifically catholic invasions, but...) I don't know about that case; will poke into why Ireland has never popped up as a naval power!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire#British_Ulti...

[1] and of course, using scurvy prevention and accurate longitude determination to go directly to the other end of the traditional trade routes meant that London cut those off as well; by water to London and then to Rotterdam or other ports was in a sense "shorter" than the slow overland trip to the Med from Asia that had been traditional.

Edit: aha, the dutch did the portuguese in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire#Iberian_Unio...

(and the dutch/english rivalry is well attested by all the pejoratives left in the language: dutch oven, dutch treat, dutch uncle, etc.)

Whether or not stories are told has zilch to tell us as to the facts of the matter. But nevertheless, congratulations on a nice dinner party riposte.