Message from @Joe The Communist
Discord ID: 689632758565437626
Not really, you lose out on 10 slaves and get a single use steam engine
It'd take much much much variation to produce the industrial possibilities we know of
Probably bigger cities assuming they wont develop steam traina
Trains
Needs way more investment
They'd develop trains
That could save the empire
Same with long distance rapid communication
If they develop trains then the empire would be bigger and more unified
And centralised industrial weapon production
if rome began to industrialize the working class would begin to hold factory jobs while the slaves worked the countryside
Yes
With who's money?
in our timeline the agricultural innovation came first
but for rome
Every wealthy person in Rome had money in plantations or political ambitions
in our situation
Grand urban improvement projects were populist projects to gain political power
would devolp steam first
Cheapening labour is the opposite of populism
Steam engine takes away jobs short term
That's the point
It's a labour saving device
Means less labour
it would very fast create factory jobs
It'd require basically a long reigning Ceasar to have a weird fascination with steam engines and metallurgy
No it wouldn't
And before it did that it'd unemploy thousands
they could replace slav labor jobs but that would not be profitable
Yes
unless the plebs rallied to remove slavery so they could have farming jobd
That'd be put down
The patricians would never tolerate it
And would tell the plebs that the slaves will take the pleb jobs
Also job shortages weren't a massive problem in Rome till near the end
so it would just hasten the collaspe of rome
holy shit
There's no plausible way for Rome to do it unless a time traveller came from the future and became Ceasar
ik exactly what caused Rome to fal
And just pushed industrialisation for 20 years