Textile mill technology was developed in the 18th century in England, then borrowed (or stolen) for introduction in the USA. The technology was as mobile as the person who understood it. Similarly, 19th century gold mines in California and Colorado were generally run by European engineers. 20th century mines in South America were frequently run by American engineers.
Today, Global Foundries is setting up a new chip fab using technology from the USA and Far East, and money from the Middle East.
What is the difference?
By contrast, today you can gut the factory, ship the machines halfway around the world and put them in a factory there. And your engineers will not take a month to get there, but a couple of days.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
I think a persuasive argument can be made that British financial capital, at least, was not seriously constrained by those capital controls.
By 1880 there was a need by those who held the capital, and who had great influence over the government, to find profitable investment opportunities abroad lest they cause the price of labor in Britain to rise and the return on their existing investments to decline. So long as they could manipulate the government into providing basic security in a destination country, such as India or South Africa, on pretext of colonial rivalry or "national interest" they could manufacture rails and locomotives in the U.K. from existing plants, build and operate railroads, etc. in India and South Africa, thereby bringing vast hinterlands into the reach, through their control, of "the market." As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
(This was also during the the first period of globalization so Mig's comment applies similarly to it.) A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
The technology was as mobile as the person who understood it
Only as long as the technology was lite, using machines made of wood and other natural materials a craftsman could assemble. The colonists and later Americans did develop foundries and metal-working, but it took time to build an industrial infrastructure. It wasn't as quick and easy as you describe.
http://www.nps.gov/spar/upload/Tho%20Blanchard%20bulletin%201206%20A.doc
I suppose the first thing to do would be to choose some dates for comparison, say 1850 and 2000...
The Blanchard story is interesting, but more a story of an individual craftsman's ingeniosity than the mobility of technology.
Look at this house that Bronson Alcott lived in in Concord, for example. And he was broke most of the time.
