No actually citing Andre Malm's recent piece on the the replacement of hydropower by coal in textile mills in the 18th century. I can't speak for Cockshott but suspect he was thinking of the same piece. Why did coal replace water power in England, Scotland and Wales? For running textile mills, hydro gave you better better production per hour of labor with no more operating skill required. Further capital and operating costs other than labor were lower. And right through 1870 was enough unused prime hydro potential to run every textile mill England, Scotland and Wales, and as late as 1870 trade literature and parliamentary enquiries show that hydor was cheaper and more productive. So why coal
Very simple: Hydro was mostly in rural communities - close enough to marketsw and with good accessible transport, but far from labor centers. Labor had to be imported and coaxed with either high wages or various types of non-wage compentsation.. Whearas steam plants could be located in big cities and towns in the midst of large labor pools. By 1830, probably sooner that ability to tap cheap labor was a decisive advantage. As labor militancy in the textile industry grew there was a second advantage. When workers when on strike, they could be replaced immediately in the steam plants. Whereas in the water mills where workers had to be imported, strikebreaking was more difficult and more expensive. In the mills that was only advantage coal had over hydro - ability to tap into cheap labor pools, both to lower initial labor costs and break strikes. No reduction in quantity of labor compared to hydro. No ability to use less trained labor.. The only advantage in coal over hydro in mills up about 1870 was redistribution of income and power from labor to capital. Of course this only applied to mills. Obviously, coal was the superior to wood in smelting, and superior to animals for running railroads and steamships. Still I think an interesting and indicative point: social technological choices not always driven by true technical advantage. Not unknown, but I think it gets overlooked in some of these discussion. On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 7:18 PM, Gar Lipow <[email protected]> wrote: > Cockshott's point on a related thread remains valid. Coal replace hydro > mainly as a means of strikebreaking. booksandjournals.brillonline.com > \content\journals\10.1163\1569206x-12341279 > > And yes electricity can replace much oil transport - Specifically when it > comes to ground transport. Trains are a mature technology though replace > most car traffic of them would require a reversal of sprawl in many > nations. Given replacement of fossil fuels with renewable electricity, > many unsurvivable practices could be replaced by survivialbe ones. Water > efficiency and desalinzation, capture and composting of organic waste to > close to repair the food->waste->fertilizer loop that was broken with the > dawn of industrialization. > > > On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Perelman, Michael > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> The Corn Laws raised the price of grain relative to people. Suddenly the >> railroad gained an advantage over horse drawn transportation, leading to >> improvements in steam engines ... >> >> >> >> >> >> Michael Perelman >> >> Economics Department >> >> California State University >> >> michael dot perelman at gmail.com >> >> Chico, CA 95929 >> >> 530-898-5321 >> >> fax 530-898-5901 >> >> www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> >> > > > -- > Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow > Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com > Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ > Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com > -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com
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