Alcsentre Calanice
Gone Fishin'
Wisdom Of The Olds - A Roman industrialization TL
How the Romans discovered the power of boiling water
After writing my little Trajan TL ending with a Roman Empire having conquered Mesopotamia, but being more than overstretched and constantly threatened by the rebellion of some powerful general in the east, I was searching for another good POD to save the Roman Empire and make it even more mighty and glorious than OTL – sadly, the POD of Rome industrializing and modernizing itself is hardly exploited, even if the mechanization of transports, industry and agriculture would be largely enough to maintain the empire for centuries. I decided to begin this timeline with a little analysis of the potential of Roman industry and science.
What is industrialization?
This is maybe the most important question. What do we mean when speaking of an industrialized country? Usually, we think of a whole process, including the accumulation of capital, the agricultural revolution, the introduction of labor division, the mechanization of the textile industry, and, as part of this process, the invention and improvement of the steam engine.
For different reasons, I will concentrate on the latter in this TL – but this doesn’t mean other elements of industrialization don’t exist in the world I conceive. Rudiments of mechanization developed already in ancient times (like water mills) will continue to exist and to be enhanced even if the evolution of a steam engine will make up the core of the process I describe.
Is the ancient world capable of industrializing?
Absolutely. Though ancient times knew some impediments to industrialization, like slavery, a generally conservative mindset, the absence of patent law, the disregard of practical work or the arrogance of the “civilized” Empire, the geographic conditions can be described as ideal – natural resources like coal or iron are easily obtainable, and though the population was smaller than the European population in 1800, mechanization in some sectors can free up a large mass of workers (slaves formerly working in agriculture) available for factory work.
Can Rome industrialize while being based on slave labor?
Slavery was an important factor with regard to the technological and scientific stagnation of the Roman Empire. Yet, elements of ancient mechanization existed not against, but together with slavery (like the water mill or the vallus), and slaves could be and were used as labor force in early factories and manufactures, as were low-wage employees in the 19th century. You might argue that slavery was a certain constraint for industrial progress, but simply denying the possibility of a Roman industrial revolution because of the number of slaves (declining since the 1st century CE) is ignoring that modern industrialization took place during a time in which cheap labor was available, as cheap labor represented by slave labor was available in the ancient world.
Was Roman metallurgy qualified for industrial tasks?
Roman metallurgy relied mainly on iron age techniques and thus wasn’t very elaborated – though, claiming that an ancient industrialization would inevitably founder on the lack of appropriate metallurgy is as shortsighted as saying that 15th century Europe couldn’t use gunpowder because of its rather primitive knowledge of how to treat iron to construct artillery. The opposite is true: once the principle and the value of a machine is recognized, progress in other areas (like metallurgy or theoretic physics) will be encouraged by the will to perfect the apparatus.
Where will the needed workforce come from?
Modern industrial revolution was partially caused by the British agricultural revolution of the 18th century, freeing up workers which in turn emigrated from rural regions into the cities and made up the urban workforce fueling industrialization. Since the Roman Empire was based on an agrarian economy, and the largest part of workmen bound to agriculture, it seems logical to conclude that every movement towards industrialization was impossible in ancient times due to the lack of agricultural productivity. However, first beginnings of mechanization were present even in Roman farming (like the Gallic harvesting machine vallus or the utilization of water mills on the countryside), and it’s probable that industrialization on other areas will provoke a change of Roman mentality and encourage a further mechanization of agriculture.
Will Roman industrialization be provoked by the aeolipile?
Ctesibius‘ machine named aelopile may play a certain role in developing a concept of a steam powered machine, but since it needs way to much energy to fulfill constructive tasks, it has to be replaced with other machines which, relying on steam power too, are working more efficiently than that ancient steam turbine.
How long will it take to develop a Roman steam engine?
Since Rome is, in many aspects of scientific and technical advance, comparable to our 17th century, it isn’t hard to realize that the way from the first experiments with steam power lifting weights (like the construction Papin presented in Marburg in 1690) to a working steam locomotive (like the Rocket presented by Stephenson in 1829) will take an equal amount of time in ancient Rome.
Where will the development of a steam engine start?
The fate of OTL’s steam engine is inextricably linked with the moving of water out of mines. Pumping water is quite easy and requires only a simple piston mechanism (known In the ancient world since Ctesibius’ works in the 3rd cenutry BCE). Additionally, primitive atmospheric engines relied on similar piston constructions, shortening the mental distance between water pumps and machines propelling these pumps.
Yet, starting the industrial revolution in the mines has another advantage. Since most of the mines inside the Roman Empire belonged to the Emperor, and since the Emperor is the richest men of the Imperium, a well thought out and convincing draft can receive nearly unlimited financial support of the Emperor's ficus. Thus, the Emperor becomes the driving force of industrialization by financing and using the revolutionary machines.
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N. B.: It was Vulcanus, not Iuppiter who gave the story a second chance.
