Practice question · Multiple choice
Roman concrete let unskilled labour lay the bulk while skilled workers built only the formwork. Why did that division matter as much as the material?
Hints
- Ask what limits how much cut-stone building an empire can do.
- The bottleneck is not the stone.
Show the answer
C. Because it made monumental building a matter of ordinary labour
Why
Cut stone needs masons, who are scarce; concrete needs bodies, who are not. The material changed the labour constraint, which is the change that scales.
Practise Roman Art and Engineering
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