Samuel Slater never opens a mill in the US

Hi!

I read somewhere that technology such as steam engines and cottom mills were considered state secrets or thereabouts back in England, the premise being that in theory England could industrialize and leave the rest of Europe behind.

Samuel Slater, however, supposedly memorized how to construct and organize a mill (having worked in them). With the plans memorized and no paper trail to follow, he secretly emigrated to the US and set up a mill there in 1793, starting the industrialization of America's fledgeling textile industry.

What would have happened had Slater never moved in the US, preferring instead to stay in England? Would the US start its industrial revolution later, if at all? Would it have been able to compete with the British and the rest of Europe?
 
A marginally slower industrialization of America. In all honesty, it was only a matter of time before someone else either took the technology to America or developed it domestically.
 

mowque

Banned
A marginally slower industrialization of America. In all honesty, it was only a matter of time before someone else either took the technology to America or developed it domestically.

For all we know, the next guy would have done it better. Then we'd have a sped up industrialization. Still, the butterflies might be huge.
 
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