[C19fan]

Hard to say given how slave based Rome’s economy was. No incentive for useful technological development.

[Wallace T.]

It was not by accident that the North, where slavery was not prevalent and was largely abolished by 1820, was the focus of the American Industrial Revolution. England, the first nation to experience the Industrial Revolution in Europe, had abolished serfdom before the rest of Europe.

[Flag_This]

"No incentive for useful technological development."

The Romans did all right for themselves:

The Roman Flour Mill at Barbegal