Wintrow (Liveship/Farseer spoilers)

[Provost]

In our world, we've only really had progress once: in mediaeval Europe. The Roman Empire, for example, had the problem that horses could only pull so heavy of a load before their collars suffocated them. They responded with a law limiting the weight of a horse's burden. The mediaeval Europeans instead invented a better collar. In the same way, the fourteenth (or one of those centuries) Chinese sailed out with a rather splendid fleet, far surpassing Columbus, all the way to Africa. When they were finished, they went home and never did it again.

In the same way, attempts by European converts to Islam to set up printing presses in the Ottoman Empire met with hostility and indifference. The point is that most cultures show extreme unfriendliness to ideas of progress but I fear this may be getting off topic.

In the ROTE, the elderlings used magic which has a lot of short term benefits over technology. It's much more readily applicable to private life. Think of the self heating scarves or the dream boxes.

Also, the dragons would likely react to the development of cannons with unprecedented violence. That would pose a severe threat to them.