Blacksmiths

Is there only the level 1 type blacksmiths in the game? Were there any metallurgic innovations in the time period that would warrant allowing the second tier to become available? Or does the silver level unbalance the battles too much? If this is the case, why not remove blacksmiths altogether and use the building slot for something far more useful, maybe combining the bonus provided by having a blacksmith into a high level tier MIC. This would make more sense to me, as I would expect a change in practice for equipping the soldiers of the army would be uniform across the board. Isn't blacksmith already included in the description of the higher level MIC's?