RE: Re: Tribal size

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_...>
Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 09:16:16 +0200 (CEST)

>>>>> The main reason for lower population figures in ancient and medieval
>>>>> times would be unused land - there weren't enough people to cultivate
>>>>> it.

>>>>Due to what, then -- lack of effort on the reproductive front?

>>> Lack of the ability to bring enough children to maturity in the main
>>> and also social constructs, such as feudalism, which restricted land
>>> use.

>>What about marginal suitability of the land? Some soils only became >>accessible with technological innovations.

donald:
> Probably a factor, but I can't think of a pre-industrial revolution
> innovation which would have a major effect unless you go back to the
> beginnings of agriculture.

Irrigation and drainage of land - a huge factor dependent on the technologies at your disposal. The introduction of the windmill as pumping power and improved dikes turned vast lots of wetland into agricultural land. Heavier plows allowed people to move from the marginal light hill soils to the fat clays of the valleys. Etc.

> Today we are used to technological innovations
> changing things frequently, in the past this was a lot rarer and slower.
> Some very high quality agricultural land was created when the swamp of
> Chat Moss was drained but that didn't happen until Stevenson built the
> Liverpool/Manchester railway. The railway made it economic to do something
> which had been technically possible for millenia.

Other regions experienced similar breakthroughs at an earlier time. Besides, the quality of such land usually shows only in the third generation.

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