You mention the case of entrepreneurs using mechanical looms to establish centralized businesses that took into a large quantity of thread, and output a large quantity of cloth. Why didn’t businesses similarly emerge that bought a large amount of unthreshed wheat, threshed them at a central location, then sold the threshed grain?
Good question. I think what happened instead is that farmers with threshing machines would rent them out to those without, or people would bring portable machines around to farms—see my reply to @ChristianKl.
Why did it happen that way? Not sure. Maybe transportation costs, which were high. Grain is much more compact and high value-density than unthreshed bundles of wheat. Makes more sense to thresh it on-location before transporting it anywhere.
Oh, also—farmers used the straw! For animal bedding, to mix with manure, etc. It really doesn’t make sense to transport stalks to a central location, and then send the straw back.
You mention the case of entrepreneurs using mechanical looms to establish centralized businesses that took into a large quantity of thread, and output a large quantity of cloth. Why didn’t businesses similarly emerge that bought a large amount of unthreshed wheat, threshed them at a central location, then sold the threshed grain?
Good question. I think what happened instead is that farmers with threshing machines would rent them out to those without, or people would bring portable machines around to farms—see my reply to @ChristianKl.
Why did it happen that way? Not sure. Maybe transportation costs, which were high. Grain is much more compact and high value-density than unthreshed bundles of wheat. Makes more sense to thresh it on-location before transporting it anywhere.
Oh, also—farmers used the straw! For animal bedding, to mix with manure, etc. It really doesn’t make sense to transport stalks to a central location, and then send the straw back.