Industry (Civ6)/Civilopedia

The term “industry” often calls to mind the Industrial Revolution, with factories filled with steam, and dangerous, whirring machines. But long before the growth of what William Blake called “dark satanic mills”, rulers saw the advantage in bringing people together to intensify their labor. In Classical antiquity as well as beyond, those working in such industries were often those without their own property – most significantly serfs or enslaved peoples (though the workshops surrounding the Egyptian pyramids, contrary to the popular narrative, were worked by wage laborers). As feudalism gave way to the guild system, and then to early modern capitalism, private individuals gained enough money and status to open their own industries, and the stage was set for the history of economics to begin.