What ended slavery? The horse collar. Tim Worstall writes:
"Re the earlier dying out of slavery in Europe. Jerry Pournelle (of all people) has pointed to the adoption of the horse collar. Pre such while horses were more productive than oxen and men in farming they ate just as much more. With the collar they were more productive per unit of food consumed as well. Thus horses replaced coerced labour in the fields.
"Not entirely sure that I have enough information to back that all up but that's as I remember it."
Tim's name at the base of the email reminds me that I clean forgot to flag up last Sunday's Britblog roundup, despite the fact that it had my ineffable wisdom in it. Not to mention other people's effable wisdom. Toffee Womble made a very good point about an entirely practical reason for the reluctance of the British press to print those cartoons, but Diamond Geezer ("This rather defeateth the point of the exercise thus far") was funnier.
posted by Natalie at 3:18 PM
