Low-Tech Kingdom Population Density?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Matthew Riggsby gave a good list of examples of the things which would fall out of use or become more expensive. Some things work when you have tens of millions of people on three continents to sell to, buy from, correspond with, study with, etc. but not when you have a few million people on a cluster of islands.

I think most of them are nonsense too. And become more expensive isn't really a factor. With 60% of your economy still there, there's little reason at all to expect nobody to be able to pay for clocks, and none at all to expect them to give up financial instruments. There are substantial alum sources in Yorkshire, though historically they aren't actually developed until mid TL4, and don't supply a majority of British alum until well into the 17th century, apparently largely for financial reasons connected to Royal monopolies abolished by the Commonwealth.

And anyway, he doesn't even touch what are probably the two biggest distinguishing innovations of TL4 - guns and printing. Nobody is going to give up guns, and individual smiths are entirely able to manufacture them. Though I will admit powder is likely to get more expensive - England *has* sulphur sources, Bath for instance, but a lot of TL4 production comes from Sicily. A society with nothing Roman villagers don't have except flintlocks and printed Bibles probably still looks more like TL4 than TL2.