Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 23rd April 2005, 03:37 PM

I imagine it is economies of scale; even with Hindoo labor cheaper than Brittish (though remember that many working Britons at the time were themselves little or no more than slaves), the new big industrial furnaces were a cheaper/more efficient way to smelt than traditional hand processes. Also, this is how England tried to run colonies; raw material out; processed goods in. How did iron shift from being a raw material to a processed good? Allow me to suggest two factors; 1/ the Hindoo iron may not have been consistent enough or otherwise "good" enough (which often boils down to too alien, when humans say it; "I don't understand it, so it's stupid....") by Brittish industrial standards to be used as a raw material in their industries, and (related) 2/ the English steel and iron production had become both controlled enough and standard enough (not to mention copious enough) to produce products famed and used throughout the world.

23rd April 2005, 03:37 PM	#2
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	I imagine it is economies of scale; even with Hindoo labor cheaper than Brittish (though remember that many working Britons at the time were themselves little or no more than slaves), the new big industrial furnaces were a cheaper/more efficient way to smelt than traditional hand processes. Also, this is how England tried to run colonies; raw material out; processed goods in. How did iron shift from being a raw material to a processed good? Allow me to suggest two factors; 1/ the Hindoo iron may not have been consistent enough or otherwise "good" enough (which often boils down to too alien, when humans say it; "I don't understand it, so it's stupid....") by Brittish industrial standards to be used as a raw material in their industries, and (related) 2/ the English steel and iron production had become both controlled enough and standard enough (not to mention copious enough) to produce products famed and used throughout the world.