The Spectator

Barometer | 6 June 2013

issue 08 June 2013

Spy society

High on the agenda when Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping meet in California will be US accusations that China is stealing US intellectual property. Yet the industrial revolution in the US was based on a piece of industrial espionage.

— Samuel Slater, who became known as the father of the US factory system, memorised details of Richard Arkwright’s spinning engines while an apprentice at a mill in Belper, Derbyshire.

— In 1789, aged 21, he emigrated to the US, disguising himself as a farm labourer to overcome suspicions that he might be planning to sell industrial secrets.

— Once in the US, he recreated the spinning mill he had known back in Belper, eventually becoming the owner of 13 mills.

Talking Balls

Ed Balls said, ‘Do I think the last Labour government was profligate, spent too much and had too much national debt? No, I don’t think there’s any evidence of that.’

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