Gregory's Serversaw a good short video about tea that explained something key about commodity production. in china, they said, tea is loose leaf and local, you may have a personal relationship with the tea grower. in the west, tea is usually ground up and uniform. the latter is not "more efficient", but turns tea into something that is better suited for commodity production: something uniform, anonymous, easily exchanged
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kohei saito says the same can be said about coal. capitalism's interest in coal being not primarily its productive capability, but rather its nature being well-suited to commodity production and exchange (in a way that, say, watermills are not -- they are rooted, without cost, and unexchangeable)