Nick Szabo  🔑

Hereford cattle, bred in the West Midlands, the hay hinterland of the earliest industrializing region in the world. The _bos taurus_ type of cattle, unique to Europe until the European diaspora, gave more beef & milk & facilitated making hard cheese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_cattle … /3pic.twitter.com/qXkTWfXFjM

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

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