The revised version of "Tiger by the Tail" adds the following information:
the leader, Cerdic's, insulting look reminds Flandry of the line, "- sneer of cold command." (See here);
Cerdic speaks heavily accented Anglic without needing a vocalizer although his voice suggests unhuman teeth, palate, tongue and throat;
Cerdic's sword looks as if it has been used - which matters later;
the Schotani got technology not from other barbarians but maybe from the Merseians, who would want to cause trouble for the Empire.
The expanded version goes into more detail about how barbarian chiefs would be able to install automated factory machinery while subjugated peasants still worked the fields. (See "Uneven But Combined Development," here.) Meanwhile, Cerdic does not suspect that capturing Dominic Flandry will cause more than an industrial revolution on Scotha.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The revised version of "Tiger By The Tail" was careful to say this "uneven" adoption of high tech by barbarians was attended by the creation of a new class of engineers and scientists who would be needed to manage the new knowledge. Given time I think such people would tend to lessen and moderate the ferocity of their leaders (as their de facto power and influence increased).
I looked up the link to your earlier article and I think you erred somewhat about Russia. I don't think Russia ever developed the kind of elaborate "high feudalism" seen in Western Europe. The setup seen there before the Muscovite unification of the Russian principalities had a "ruder," less advanced look.
Also, while Russia did lag behind Western Europe technologically, I don't think it was that far behind. Strictly in technological terms, I think it was more or less even with Europe by 1800 at latest. The real flaw was Russia being dangerously backwards in political and social matters. But even that needs nuancing: Tsarist Russia managed to abolish serfdom without a bloody civil war (unlike the US).
Sean
The crucial point is that you can adopt advanced technology without going through the social evolution that accompanied the development of that technology in the society which first invented it.
Eg., western and central Europe adopted British industrial technology, but often with variations in the social and organizational structure -- Germans had cartels and investment banks rather than the more decentralized British structure of industrial ownership. And the "smokestack barons" of the Ruhr adopted many traditional Prussian noble attitudes and habits, including their brutish instrumentalism.
Russia is a more extreme case, since it was culturally further away. It "modernized" several times, for example in Peter the Great's time, but each time it ran into a wall because it was unwilling or unable to change its basic cultural parameters, without which the new machinery fell on barren ground.
Russian patrimonial despotism proved to be a very powerful tradition, for example, which they couldn't really get rid of.
There's a story told by a Russian-speaking British traveler in Russia just after the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway (a tremendous engineering feat) that's rather illuminating.
The train stopped at this godforsaken little station in Siberia, and the locomotive engineer went around lubricating and tightening joints on the engine.
His assistant, who was staggering drunk, went around carefully loosening the joints after him.
The engineer heard him giggling, saw what he was doing, knocked him down and began kicking and beating him. A soldier (there were always military detachments on railway platforms) came over and started beating him too.
After a while, he turned to the locomotive engineer and said: "By the way, brother -- what are we beating this son of a bitch for?"
Russia...
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree, the patrimonial despotism of Tsarist Russia was DEEPLY rooted in Russia, something which could not be easily or quickly done away with. Albeit, I think the October Manifesto of 1905 and the reforms of Peter Stolypin between 1906-11 might have turned Russia into a far better and more hopeful path. With one proviso, Russia had to avoid any wars, practice a strict neutrality, and become reconciled to Germany and Austria-Hungary. True, that would have meant breaking the alliance with the UK and France. But given reconciliation with Germany/Austria, Russia didn't need them.
Sean
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