Innovation and Economic Growth in the Natural History

This chapter focuses on Pliny's ideas about invention and innovation, the foundations of sustained growth. It starts from David Hume's observation in 1742 that “it is more easy to account for the rise and progress of commerce in any kingdom, than for that of learning.” Pliny generalizes about increases in knowledge in a similar vein, and in addition he attests to inventions and discoveries throughout Greek and Roman history. The chapter then examines the inventions reported in the Natural History, Pliny's understanding of the process of discovery and its motives in the context of the Pax Romana. Overall, Pliny believed that discovery, innovation, and enrichment were the results of accident or divine intervention, not of Romans' intentional research. It is striking that Pliny's list of 136 great innovations at the end of Book 7 includes not a single Roman technical innovation.