The Singularity of Western Innovation : The Language Nexus

321 Pages·2017·5.003 MB·

by  Leonard Dudley

f
o

Y
T
I
R t i o n
A a
v
L o
n
U n
G I
n
N
r
I
e
S
t

E s u s
x
e e
H N
W e
T g
a
u
g
n
a
L

e
h
T
L
E
O
N
A
R
D

D
U
D
LEY
The Singularity of Western Innovation
Leonard Dudley
The Singularity of
Western Innovation
The Language Nexus
LeonardDudley
Montreal,Canada
ISBN978-1-137-40317-9 ISBN978-1-137-39822-2 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-39822-2
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017946893
©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,
whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,
reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinany
otherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,
computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare
exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationin
thisbookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublisher
northeauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerial
contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher
remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional
affiliations.
Coverimage©FALKENSTEINFOTO/AlamyStockPhoto
CoverdesignbySamanthaJohnson
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisNatureAmericaInc.
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:1NewYorkPlaza,NewYork,NY10004,U.S.A.
P
REFACE
OnthebookshelfofWesternhistory,themodernperiodisboundedbytwo
solid bookends in the form of “tions”—the Reformation in the sixteenth
centuryandglobalizationinthetwentieth.Betweenthemstandsasequence
of three stout “isms”—nationalism, industrialism and imperialism—each
emerginginaseparatecentury.
Theseventeenthcenturymarkedthebeginningofnationalism—aseriesof
movementswhoseaimwastopromotetheinterestsof“asufficientnumberof
peopleineachstatewhoconsider(ed)themselvestoformanation”,tousethe
definitionofHughSeton-Watson(1977,3–5).Thebittermid-centuryrivalry
betweentheDutchandtheEnglishformercantilepre-eminencewasasign
thatanewkindofnationhademergedwithinboundariesthatapproximated
those of a political state. There followed three centuries of bitter rivalry
betweentheBritishnationstateanditscontinentalcounterparts.
With the eighteenth century came industrialism, the appearance of
societies organized not on the basis of agriculture, commerce and crafts-
manship,butratherofindustriespoweredbymachines.Newtechnologies
shifted the locus of production from the household and workshop to the
smelter and factory. During the century and a half prior to 1850, as Joel
Mokyr(1990)has shown, allbuta fewofthe mostimportant innovations
were developed in just three states—Britain, its American offshoot and
France. We shall see that these states were precisely the first to have
experiencedlanguagestandardizationacenturyearlier.
Asforthenineteenthcentury, itwasthe ageofanewform ofthe third
“ism”, imperialism. Previously, the Portuguese and Spanish had built
v
vi PREFACE
colonial empires in less-developed regions based on the pillage of human
and natural resources. However, in the half century after 1815, there
emerged a new imperialism under the leadership of Britain and France
that aimed to integrate the more advanced civilizations of Asia and North
Africa by force into Western-dominated commercial networks. Daniel
Headrick (2010) has described the new technologies that permitted this
more intensive type of exploitation. Yet there was something more. As we
shallsee,asenseofacommonidentitygavetheexpeditionaryforcesofthe
WestacohesivenessthatAsianarmieslacked.
Most of the events in these three long centuries had their own distinct
causes. However, the sequential timing of the three “isms” suggests the
possibilityofsomeunderlyingcausalrelationship.IhappentoliveinMontreal
wherefortwoandahalfcenturiesofdailyskirmishes,thelanguagesofthetwo
dominant European powers in the period to be studied in this book have
struggled against each other. Recently, however, political and demographic
movementshaveincreasedthelinguistichomogeneityofthecity.Astandard-
izedFrenchisclearlyestablishingitselfasthevernacular,whileEnglishisused
for contact with the outside world. At the same time, the city has become
culturally and technologically one of the most dynamic centers in North
America.Itcomesalmostintuitivelytoonelivinginthisenvironmenttoask
whetherlinguisticchangecouldhaveplayedaroleintheEurasiandramasof
thepastthreecenturies.Considerthenthethree“isms”mentionedabove—
nationalism,industrialismand imperialism—alongwithsomefactsthatsug-
gesthowlanguagemighthaveplayedaroleintheiremergence.
First, during the seventeenth century, did something happen to the
languages ofEngland and France that failed to occur elsewhere in Europe
orAsiaatthetime?Onepossibleindicatorofsuchachangeisanewtypeof
publication.In1658and1678appearedthefirstmonolingualdictionaries
oftheEnglishandFrenchlanguages,respectively,thatwerenotsimplylists
ofhardwordstospell(Green1996).Itwouldtakeanothercenturyormore
before equivalent dictionaries were published for other north-European
vernacular languages. The Asian civilizations would have to wait until the
twentiethcenturyforsuchvernaculardictionariestoappear.
Second, during the eighteenth century, did the linguistic changes in
question somehow make it easier for groups of innovators to come up
with ideas for new technologies and to develop them into products that
wereuseful?Consider,forexample,theletterwrittenin1773byanEnglish
manufacturertoaScottishengineerproposingapartnershiptodevelopan
efficient steam engine (Marsden 2004, 84). A century earlier, Matthew
PREFACE vii
BoultonandJamesWattwouldhavehadgreatdifficultyincommunicating
witheachother,letaloneworkingtogetherproductivelyonapath-breaking
industrialtechnology.
Third,inthenineteenthcentury,didthetechnologiesincorporatedinto
Westernfactoriesandtheirmachinesalsohaveapplicationsthatdramatically
reducedthe cost ofwaging war against statesequipped with earlier gener-
ationsofmilitarytechniques?Anexampleofthemilitaryimpactofsuchnew
technologiesoccurredin1827,duringtheGreekWarofIndependence.A
small British-built steamship firing explosive shells destroyed an Ottoman
sailingfleet(Abney-Hastings2011).Theeventwouldmarkthebeginning
oftheendforwoodensailingwarships.
Inthefollowingstudy,eachofthesethreequestionswillbediscussedina
separatesection.Part1belowwillconcentrateontheseventeenthcentury.
Duringthisperiod,WesternEuropeexperiencedthebeginningofaremark-
able acceleration in the flow of information—what historian Steven Marks
(2016) has called the “Information Nexus”. It will be shown that this
discontinuity is attributable in part to language standardization in two of
the largest states, in what will be termed the Linguistic Revolution.
Part2willgoontodescribethreeofthemostimportantindustrialinnova-
tions of the eighteenth century—the steam engine, machine tools and
interchangeable parts—and their initial downstream extensions. It will
becomeclearthatthekeyinnovationsofthistechnologicaldisruption,the
familiar Industrial Revolution, were made possible by cooperation within
networks of innovators sharing a common language. Finally, Part 3 will
examinethreeimportantmilitaryinnovationsofthenineteenthcenturythat
stemmed from these earlier civilian breakthroughs; namely, the steamship,
shell-firing cannon and mass-produced firearms. Here was a Military Rev-
olutionthat,combinedwiththeaggressivecohesivenessofthenationstate,
assuredWesterndominanceoverAsiauntiltheendofthemillennium.
Thesequentialtimingofthesethreerevolutionssuggeststhattheremaybe
causal links between them. Indeed, the presence of such ties has been pro-
posedinseveralrecentstudiesoftheriseoftheWest.Asweshallsee,however,
there is more than one way to interpret the direction of causality. In the
concluding chapter, we will confront a networking hypothesis emphasizing
languagestandardizationwithapopularalternative—thetournamentmodel
ofinterstateconflictdescribedbyPhilipT.Hoffman(2015).Thebasicissuein
explainingtheriseoftheWestwillberephrasedintermsoftheimportanceof
intergroupcompetitionrelativetointragroupcooperation.
viii PREFACE
IamgratefultoUlrichBlumandUlrichWittfortheirsupportduringthe
long gestation of the ideas in this book. I wish to thank Sarah Lawrence,
Allison Neuburger and their colleagues at Palgrave Macmillan for their
helpful guidance in the preparation of the manuscript. I am also grateful
toRamarajBrittaforherexcellentworkineditingthetext.Andlastbutnot
least, many thanks to Brigitte for her patience and for the many excellent
suggestionsshehasofferedoverthelastthreeyears.
Montreal,Canada LeonardDudley
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
1.1 TheChallenge 1
1.2 BeyondSupplyandDemand 3
1.3 TheSeventeenthCentury 7
1.4 TheEighteenthCentury 9
1.5 TheNineteenthCentury 15
1.6 OutlineoftheBook 18
References 25
Part1 TheLinguisticRevolution 29
2 1600:TheDynasticCycle 31
2.1 TheEndIsNigh 31
2.2 ElizabethI 33
2.3 MehmedIII 38
2.4 Akbar 44
2.5 TheWanliEmperor 48
2.6 WhithertheDynasticCycle? 54
References 55
ix
x CONTENTS
3 Printing 59
3.1 WhichWasMoreImportant:PaperorthePrintingPress? 59
3.2 PrintinginEngland 60
3.3 PrintingintheOttomanEmpire 67
3.4 PrintinginIndia 71
3.5 PrintinginChina 73
3.6 TheAsymmetricDiffusionofTwoMacro-inventions 77
References 78
4 Literacy 81
4.1 LiteracyinBritain 81
4.2 LiteracyintheOttomanEmpire 84
4.3 LiteracyinIndia 85
4.4 LiteracyinChina 88
4.5 ComparingLiteracyRates 92
References 96
5 LanguageStandardization 99
5.1 Language,NationalismandtheWillingnesstoPayTaxes 99
5.2 LinguisticConvergenceinBritain 100
5.3 LinguisticDivergenceintheOttomanEmpire 107
5.4 LinguisticDivergenceinIndia 110
5.5 LinguisticDivergenceinChina 112
5.6 StatesofConfusion 119
References 121
Part2 TheIndustrialRevolution 125
6 1700:FinancingtheImperialState 127
6.1 TheCycles’End 127
6.2 Englandin1700 128
6.3 TheOttomanEmpirein1700 133
6.4 Indiain1700 137