This is why it is good that nowadays you can quit your job and start elsewhere instead of waiting for promotion. “Apprentices, of course, were proper blacksmiths in training and might one day look to be as well respected as… Read More »Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It, Part III: Hammer-time
Iron is not hard to get as most people think. “One of the reasons that the change from using bronze (or copper) as tool metals to using iron was so important historically is that iron is just so damn abundant.… Read More »Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It? Part I, Mining
Inference crops lead to different incentives and different outcomes for societies. “the high productivity of rice production meant that labor was relatively abundant in the countryside, as households could subsist on much smaller farmers. But this in turn seems to… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Addendum: Rice!
Just use boats. This is also true today. “when it comes to moving large volumes, the sea changes everything. The fundamental problem with transporting food on land is that the energy to transport the food must come from food, either… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Part IV: Markets, Merchants and the Tax Man
Being a merchant in the past was not prestigious. “For the farmers who need to sell their crops (for reasons we will get to in a moment) and purchase the things they need that they cannot produce, the merchant feels… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Part IV: Markets, Merchants and the Tax Man
Getting bread was not fun. “Being thus sent in pistrinum was essentially a deferred death sentence, much like being sent to work in mining. Consequently, in large, muscle-powered mills, the fellows actually turning the millstone were likely to be captives,… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did they Make it? Part III: Actually Farming
Water is expensive. Especially when you are poor. “Apart from land – which was actually not a major limiting factor in the village – the main forms of agricultural capital were ox plow-teams (something I’d expect) and wells (something I… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Part II: Big Farms
This still applies today. “I led in with all of that risk and vulnerability because without it just about nothing these farmers do makes a lot of sense; once you understand that they are managing risk, everything falls into place.… Read More »Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Part I: Farmers!
War horses did not work like you think. “if for some baffling reason you are going to charge enemy infantry in good order over an open field, you really want a weapon which can reach past the head of your… Read More »That Dothraki Charge
War works differently then you think. “That focus on morale gets to a truth about warfare: the winner of a battle is not the one that kills the most, but the one who makes the enemy run away. And the… Read More »Collections: The Siege of Gondor: Part VI: Black Sails and Gleaming Banners