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A key benefit of grain agriculture: it's storable & transportable. Hard cheese & sausage gave stationary pastoralism portable protein. Here is Cheshire hard cheese, once a staple of the Royal Navy & also from the hay hinterlands of the Midlands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire_cheese … /4pic.twitter.com/JSDzmocegR
The seeds of stationary pastoralism were sown millennia before when northern Europeans evolved a form of lactase persistence, alongside their _bos taurus_ cows evolving new milk proteins: See https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2011/05/lactase-persistence-and-quasi.html … /5pic.twitter.com/RCnzYcTMLs
The spread of hay meadows & fodder fields gave rise to the use of horses in draft. Pulled the same loads as oxen but twice as fast. The biggest breeds pulled even heavier loads & brought the heavy fuels & parts of the industrial revolution together: https://youtu.be/ss1xoOdhU-c?t=269 … /6
Victorians had specialized markets where consumers bought freshly butchered beef. They were often veritable palaces. Here's the Smithfield meat market in London:pic.twitter.com/HEisGC04zE
The Walloon region of Belgium was the first region in Continental Europe to industrialize. Bred in the hay hinterlands of Wallonia were the Belgian and Ardennes heavy draft horses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_horse … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardennes_horse …pic.twitter.com/lTSrjM0XVz
The rise of river navigations & canals followed on the rise of the draft horse during 17-19th centrs. Bucolic haulage: https://youtu.be/7MXidB7V9Ik Many tunnels & aqueducts were built from horse-hauled brick & stone, for example the Barton Aqueduct on the Bridgewater Canal, 1760s. /9pic.twitter.com/kxcTyFNrHN
Ore or stone was hoisted from mines & quarries by horse-powered gins: https://blogs.uakron.edu/cap/quarry-tools/ … Here a gin powers an 18th cent. innovation for grain agriculture, the threshing machine, via an axle bent through a Hooke universal joint: https://youtu.be/FW65z0elWb4// /10pic.twitter.com/MK7j8FtsUk
More info on stationary pastoralism, & the ag & transport revolutions based on it that enabled the industrial revolution & escape from the Malthusian trap: https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2014/10/transportation-divergence-and.html … https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2010/09/malthusian-mystery.html … https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2010/10/malthus-and-capital.html … https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2011/06/trotting-ahead-of-malthus.html … https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2011/05/lactase-persistence-and-quasi.html … /12
Dividing line in lactase persistence appears to coincide with the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. This could explain the difference in annual milk consumption: 238kg for BE, 320kg (!) for NE. I was always impressed by the huge dairy isles in Dutch supermarkets...
More of a gradient although the Rhine may give it a step. Part of a more general correlation between lactase persistence & Protestantism. Once stationary pastoralists could print their own Bibles they rebelled against the wheat-and-fish Catholics, with many caught between.
That's fascinating! Agree core cultural dividing line BE & NL = Catholicism vs Protestantism. The Dutch had to claim their land from the ocean, perhaps having to deal with floods more often they taught themselves to extract more calories from less animals. https://canvasandcrumpets.com/2016/04/14/the-saint-elizabeths-day-flood-rijksmuseum-amsterdam/ …pic.twitter.com/UYFdKngcRc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953 … "Floods covered 9% of Dutch farmland, and sea water flooded 1,365 km2 (527 sq mi) of land. An estimated 30,000 animals drowned"pic.twitter.com/766Dnh1XKe
it's as if the UK has left Europe already...
Thank you for this thread! Helped me to put a family lactose intolerance into context (in Czech Republic it's quite uncommon and now I know why).
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