Barkley: You always bring a breath of fresh air into this miasmic discussion. I'm working on a third volume of The Colonizer's Model and one section will deal with the industrial revolution. I'll argue -- this is not partiucalry original -- that the run-up to, and early stages, of the industrial revolution (to maybe 1840) were stimulated most critically by steadily increasing demand (particularly for cotton cloth) which capitalists expected to contnue to increase, hence (given labor's resistance) they quickly and repeatedly introduced new and more productive or efficient technology (or went out of business). Technology, I (and many others) argue, is always available ahead of the need for its use. (We tend to romanticize invention.) So the signatyure of the IR, new technolgoy, PRIMARILY reflected increased demand over a long period of time. I think I'll be able to show that the steadily increased demand reflected various forms of colonialism and related phenomena: plantation colonies, settler colonies, wars over coloniasl possessions (including the Napoleonic Wars, by the way), trade, some of it unequal, in Asia; and also the evolving changes in Europe which in part were reflections of Europe Expanding: urbanization, stimulated agriculturasl production, with -- in England -- its big new demand for iron implements -- etc. We already know, Barkley, that those Others on the list, the Eurocentrists, will kick and scream when they read this. They should be forewarned that I'm not going to get into a discussion of this matter until the next millennium, and not with them. Cheers Jim Blaut
