Invention historian. I write *Age of Invention*, an email newsletter on the history of invention and economic history.
Joined November 2008
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Mar 24
Why did Scotland punch so far above its weight in the age of industrialisation and enlightenment?
The usual answer is education.
But I argue that this puts the cart before the horse, and that it was almost entirely down to capital:
ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-…
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Jun 11
We lost so much with the Great Fire of 1666:
Every marine insurance policy registered in London at the Royal Exchange since 1574 was destroyed.
Can you imagine the data!
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Jun 10
Gordon Wood was the great historian of the American Revolution - the first person you’d go to for the authoritative overview of it - and didn’t deserve to be smeared in this way - just for once upon a time criticising a journalist’s errors, when asked!
Jun 9
Slightly taken aback by the Guardian's Gordon Wood obituary. I can find one reference to Wood saying he'd read the opening essay of the 1619 Project and objected to it (not quite "I haven't read most of it"). What follows seems to me to be a guilt-by-association shoehorning.
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Dr Anton Howes retweeted
Jun 8
It’s pretty bleak that the Business Secretary’s justification for taking these company stakes is that it would give him an incentive to do the thing he’s already supposed to be doing.
Jun 8
The real risk for the UK in this economy isn’t that it takes equity stakes. It’s that it doesn’t - while every major competitor country does.
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May 27
When in 1549 Lord Sheffield was hacked down by a butcher in Norwich, was this the third time in English history that a group of commoners had killed a peer of the realm? And was it the last?
(First being Archbishop of Canterbury in 1381 and second Lord Saye and Sele in 1450)
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Dr Anton Howes retweeted
May 26
The idea going the rounds that this is somehow a right wing neo-liberal government rather flies in the face of the evidence. Me in @thetimes
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May 25
So many of Britain's problems in a nutshell:
>1952 council block falling apart, sewage leaking into flats, loose cladding, dangerous wiring
>£48m bill to completely overhaul it and ensure it's habitable, so cheaper to demolish and rebuild
>council evacuates most social tenants and tries to buy up a majority of flats to be able to demolish
BUT
>resistant residents, backed by Living Rent activists, don't want to sell because asking price too low, and say council should never have let it get so bad
>they submit the building to Historic Environment Scotland to be listed
>HES unexpectedly say they're likely to list, which would make repairs even more expensive, and demolition potentially impossible
>council stops buying the remaining flats while they wait for a decision, in case they just have to sell what they can or write it off
>now residents will potentially be unable to sell at all
scotsman.com/news/edinburgh-…
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May 25
Useful context on why repairs are so challenging and expensive:
The building has a lot of asbestos lining of the internal conduits carrying the soil pipes - quite apart from everything else the Council has not been able to find a contractor prepared to take on the task of removal of this due to the confined working space.
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May 24
There are two ways to increase economy-wide labour productivity: raise people’s productivity, or drive the less productive out of jobs.
The government has done the latter.
Like taking players off a team to raise the average goals per player, rather than scoring more goals.
May 24
Unemployment is up. Vacancies are down. The retail and hospitality sectors are shedding jobs. At the same time, there are encouraging signs of a productivity revival.
Are these things related – and was this part of a deliberate government strategy all along? 🧵
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Dr Anton Howes retweeted
May 24
Amid all the talk of freezing the price of groceries, I looked at what goes into the cost of a pint of milk.
Two things jump out...
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May 23
At first I thought it was a typo for "Almain", or German, but 1540s Scotland suffered at the hands of hundreds of **Albanian** mercenaries, hired by Henry VIII for his invasion.
Known as the stradioti, from the word strada, or road, they were Greek and Balkan refugees who had fled the Ottoman advance, settling in Italy and France.
Armed with 12-foot-long spears tipped at both ends, they were expert at hit-and-run tactics - effectively mounted guerrillas.
They even saw action against the English peasantry, being part of the force of mercenaries - a few hundred heavy cavalry from Spain, Burgundy, Italy, and Cleves, 1,600 German landsknechts, and some Italian handgunners - who put down the 1549 rebellions in the Home Counties, East Anglia, and South West.
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Dr Anton Howes retweeted
May 21
Journalists should ask the following:
Will he index capital gains to inflation? (Or will he tax people who haven’t actually made money in real terms?)
Will there be a rate of return allowance to adjust to avoid discouraging investment (relative to consumption)?
Will there be any changes to the treatment of losses? (Or is he content to massively penalise entrepreneurial risktaking?)
Is there going to be an exit tax? (Or will he allow people to avoid the tax by moving to Dubai?)
There is a case for a version of CGT/Income Tax equalisation (see Mirrlees Review), but it will likely raise significantly less than £12bn.
May 21
Wes Streeting has this morning set out his tax plans - specifically bringing capital gains tax into line with income tax
He says that the current system is unfair because it penalises work
Higher or additional rate taxpayers will pay 24% on gains in the current financial year. Streeting said that the rates should mirror income tax bands - so 40% for higher rate taxpayers and 45% for additional rate taxpayers
He says that the approach could raise £12billion a year
Streeting said: “A member of my family is a cleaner in Lancashire. She pays a higher tax rate on her salary than her landlord pays for the growing value of the home she lives in. She slogs her guts out, he puts in far less effort, yet the state rewards him more than her. And we wonder why people are angry.
“The system is penalising work. It’s not fair and it’s bad for our economy. We need a wealth tax that works. A pound made from simply owning assets should not be taxed less than a pound made from a hard day's work. We can do it in a way that is pro-growth, pro-entrepreneur and pro-work.”
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May 20
I'm worried that the book I've spent years writing is going to end up as two or three volumes rather than one. Causes of the British Industrial Revolution, but I'm now eight chapters in and still only up to the summer of 1549.
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Dr Anton Howes retweeted
May 19
Lost for words. Never thought I’d see a British govt trying to set food prices. If there is one highly competitive sector it is food retailing.
Do we really want to live in a country where the state sets these prices?
thetimes.com/article/3ec704f…
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May 19
Fun to see a government minister name-checking one of my favourite figures: one of the people who put in place the crucial foundations in the 1550s of the Industrial Revolution, and a completely unsung hero for helping prevent an economic catastrophe in Ireland - Robert Recorde.
We are a nation of inventors. It’s time for us to write technology’s next chapter 🏴 🚀
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May 19
In case you were wondering about how he saved Ireland's economy, when I said he was completely unsung, I really meant completely. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned it before. x.com/antonhowes/status/2056…
May 19
His mission to run the silver mines at Clonmines was indeed a failure, but his wholly unsung achievement was that in late 1551 he convinced Lord Deputy Sir James Croft, and through him the Privy Council in England, of why there had been an extraordinary surge in inflation in Ireland - over and above the already bad inflation from debasement of the coinage - from England having halted debasement without having taken any corresponding measure in Ireland - an imbalance they rectified a few months later. Croft's final letter on the matter to the PC even ends with a note that he has sent Recorde to explain and answer any objections they might have in person!
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May 19
Love this line:
“This isn’t about kissing the arse of the Masters of the Universe at Goldman Sachs, it is about making Colin who runs the treasury function of an insurance company in Norwich less inclined to investigate fully hedged German Bunds.”
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May 19
Two of Merlin’s other automata, a graceful lady and a dancer with a bird, captivated a young Charles Babbage, grandfather of computing.
May 17
Silver Swan Automaton… no motors, built in 1773 and still working perfectly.
The Silver Swan is powered entirely by mainsprings and brass clockwork gears.
Why did we stop creating such elegant engineering and beautiful pieces of art… timeless and built to last?
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May 19
I earlier said he described the swan, but had misremembered. Here’s the passage in his memoirs:
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May 18
The answer is simple: when you publish a book, release a chapter by chapter podcast to discuss it!
May 18
"Dad books" — which this article, and some publishing insiders, use to describe "serious nonfiction" books across biography, current affairs and business and economics — are reportedly in a free fall, with sales declining every year for the last few years
“The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint.
“When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers.
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May 17
A remarkable scene from the 1549 siege of Exeter by Catholic rebel forces:
One of the defending commanders on behalf of the king, Bernard Duffield, had been sallying out to attack the besiegers in the suburbs beyond the city walls. But the city leaders disagreed with the tactic and, after a big argument in which Duffield "fell out in foul and disordered speeches", had him imprisoned.
Hearing of this, Duffield's daughter, Frances, came to the mayor to demand his release. Yet upon being denied, "she waxed so warm that not only she used very unseemly terms and speeches unto the mayor, but also, contrary to the modesty and shamefacedness required in a woman, especially young and unmarried, ran most violently upon him and struck him in the face."
The incident provoked such alarm that a rumour spread that the mayor had been beaten or killed, causing the defending troops to march on the guildhall, but order was just about maintained.
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