My parents have lived in Jamaica for seven years now and whenever I visit I always get upset by how bad the transport network is. As a former economics student, I firmly believe that countries and economies can’t develop if labour and goods can’t get to where they are needed fast.
I never considered before though how important and valuable sending information quickly can be. Nowadays, we expect to know about worldwide news and events instantly. When major events happen, the information is made available within minutes via the internet on sites like twitter. It’s easy to forget that this wasn’t always the case; the book A Farewell to Alms compares how long it took for major news events to be delivered to London in the 19th century:
| Event | Year | Distance (miles) | Days until report | Speed (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battle of the Nile | 1798 | 2073 | 62 | 1.4 |
| Battle of Trafalgar | 1805 | 1100 | 17 | 2.7 |
| Earthquake, Kutch, India | 1819 | 4118 | 153 | 1.1 |
| Treaty of Nanking | 1842 | 5597 | 84 | 2.8 |
| Charge of the Light Brigade, Crimea | 1854 | 1646 | 17 | 4.0 |
| Indian Mutiny, Delhi Massacre | 1857 | 4176 | 46 | 3.8 |
| Treaty of Tien-Sin (China) | 1858 | 5140 | 82 | 2.6 |
| Assassination of Lincoln | 1865 | 3674 | 13 | 12 |
| Assassination of Archduke Maximilian, Mexico | 1867 | 5545 | 12 | 19 |
| Assassination of Alexander II, St. Petersburg | 1881 | 1309 | 0.46 | 119 |
| Nobi Earthquake, Japan | 1891 | 5916 | 1 | 246 |
Imagine not knowing for days whether or not you’d won a battle or not? Imagine if the news were wrong…it would take days to query the news and to get a reply! Kottke estimates that information now travels at 38,250mph based on the time it took news of the 2008 Sichaun earthquake to travel from China to London. Now that’s what I call progress!
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