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Comment by aurareturn | Hacker News Reader

This is nothing new. The British banned skilled textile workers from immigration to US.

Edit: The British also banned export of advanced textile machines during the industrial revolution to US. It's very similar to the US/Europe banning ASML machines from being sold to China.

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Probably backfired, with people from other economies filling the hole, and opportunities for bilateral trade affected. Ironic given the majority of the pre industrial revolution silk weavers in London were Hugenot migrants, settled in Stepney.

Our Hugenot migrants did well with their watch industry right up until the japanese ate their lunch with quartz movements.

Samuel Slater memorized the designs for textile machinery, emigrated to the US, and built the first textile mills in the US.

It might have been smarter for the British to sell their machines to the US, rather than banning exports and thereby encouraging the development of American copycat competitors.

government preventing people from taking the maximum amount offered for their labour is incredibly communist, it's exactly what cuba does with their doctors

It really depends. Spies creating moles in government agencies by giving them money is same principle. An employee just went to work for highest bidder.

That's such a bad take it's impressive.

It would be correct if applied inside the same country, it is just protectionist.

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