Did Henry VIII delay the industrial age?

Did Henry VIII delay the industrial age?

Maybe. The abbeys were centers throughout medieval Europe (especially Northern Europe) for advanced technology. The monks also didn't share the old Roman (and Greek) disdain for manual labor and invention. Even though water and wind-driven mills were known earlier in Roman times, it wasn't until after 1000 AD that they started popping up all over Northern Europe.

"One of the key things is that the Cistercians had a regular meeting of abbots every year, and they had the means of sharing technological advances across Europe," he said. "They effectively had a stranglehold on iron. The breakup of the monasteries broke up this network of technology transfer."

Well, if they had this network for sharing technology, why would the breakup of monasteries in England stop the Cistercians from building a blast furnace elsewhere? Henry VIII did not have the former monks killed. If I recall, they were free to leave the country.

Well, if they had this network for sharing technology ...

Don't you wonder how stuff like that gets by an editor?

Technological progress does NOT come about only from invention. Many cultures have invented many things over the centuries (Chinese gunpowder and Hindu mathematics come to mind), but often in traditional, feudal societies these inventions "just sit there," instead of being widely distributed throughout the population.

It's really questionable whether the Cistercian (and other) inventions would have spread as widely without a Reformation. One of the consequences of the Reformation was the development of free-market capitalism, widespread individual ownership of land (a trend which started after the Black Death but accelerated greatly after the Reformation), and most important - the idea of *intellectual* property ownership.

Further, widespread technical innovation doesn't come only from a few inventions in isolated spots. It proceeds exponentially when vast chunks of the population become literate, numerate, and show an interest in the sciences. This did not come about until the 18th century because from the late 15th to the early 18th, *both* Catholic and Protestant nations were too busy censoring any sign of "deviance" within their own ranks, and fighting religious wars.

Whatever else its benefits, medieval Catholicism did NOT provide widespread education, protection of *non-aristocratic* real property, free expression of ideas, guarantee of intellectual property, or a social mileu based on widespread literacy & numeracy. Individuals might have produced isolated inventions, but it was their widespread distribution through a population - and the creation of a *community* of innovators, not just individuals - which really set it off.

and most important - the idea of *intellectual* property ownership.

Yes, the Christian monks believed in the "open source" and in sharing of ideas. We will see what will be the result of "intellectual property" revolution initiated under George Bush the First (when for example owning the book content was retroactively moved back almost hundred years).

Cistercian network? Yes, I enjoy it when writers apply modern (or is it post-modern now?) terminology and concepts to the people of 450 years ago.

Technological progress does NOT come about only from invention. Many cultures have invented many things over the centuries, but often in traditional, feudal societies these inventions "just sit there," instead of being widely distributed throughout the population.................

Yes......The Greeks and Romans come to mind. Greeks invented the steam engine, and some Roman emporer played around with a steamboat and a steam tractor, but they were only toys. Likewise, the North American indigenes knew what a wheel was, and knew that a cart could be made with it to carry loads, but they only used it as a child's toy.

........... the development of free-market capitalism, I think, along with widespread education for the elite and the need by the capitalists for a better-educated workforce, explains it all

Yes, the Christian monks believed in the "open source" and in sharing of ideas.

That's nice for a society that has 25% of its men in the monastery, but in a post-Reformation society, men need to make a living from either the work of their hands or the work of their minds. Being able to profit from your investment of education, time and experimentation is crucial to technological development.

Do you support the retroactive expansion of "intellectual property rights" to 70 or 95 years AFTER author's death ? How is it helping "technological development" exactly?

Hey, why not to expand it to 1000 years? Then all those corporations and inheritors will find itself in the servitude to the Christian monastic orders without whom those free market worshippers would still live in the caves or on the trees. If 70/95 years AFTER death is beter than 50/70 then 1000 years is perfect!

Do you support the retroactive expansion of "intellectual property rights" to 70 or 95 years AFTER author's death ? How is it helping "technological development" exactly?

No. But there IS a middle ground between living in a monastery under vows of poverty, and the restrictions you mention.