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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 255259" data-attributes="member: 5400">Historians have traditionally pointed to increased food production capacity as the necessary pre-condition for the industrial revolution. Enhancments to agrarian efficiency, in the form of seed sewing techniques and machines, meant that fewer people were needed to produce the same amount of food as before and therefore, there was more food and fewer agrarian workers - which means cities grow and can develop urban production - ie factories.So in terms of technology, sewing and harvesting machines could be said to set off an industrial revolution. Mostly though, increased transport and information transfer is the key. Until the advent of modern transport, a city couldn't grow too much larger than the number of people that eats all the food within a few miles of the city, because feeding the transport animals (horse, oxen, whatever) became more expensive than the amount you could get selling the food. Plus, there was the issue of spoilage. Civilisation really began to take off in the latter nineteenth century because of the dual innovations of railways and refridgeration.Of course, in a world full of magic, spoilage and transport are a whole other ball game. HAs this helped, or am I just rambling?</blockquote>