Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I

Part 1: Weight of Numbers

Guessing the world population

• The demographic revolution as history’s most significant change: World population doubled between 1400-1800 (four centuries), while today it doubles every 30-40 years, representing the most dramatic transformation distinguishing the modern world from pre-1800 humanity

  • Population growth is both cause and consequence of material progress
  • Demographic patterns provide a “first-class pointer” to civilizational success and failure

• Methodological challenges in historical demography: Even current world population is only known within 10% margin of error, making earlier estimates extremely uncertain

  • Most reliable data exists only for Europe and China through censuses and fiscal records
  • Complete absence of reliable data for India, non-Chinese Asia, Black Africa, and conflicting estimates for the Americas

• The Berkeley School controversy over pre-Columbian America: Radical disagreement between conservative estimates (10-15 million) and Berkeley historians’ calculations (up to 100 million for all Americas in 1500)

  • Berkeley School’s Mexican data suggests population collapse from 25 million (1519) to 1 million (1605)
  • Biological catastrophe caused by European diseases (smallpox, measles, typhus) against which indigenous populations had no immunity
  • Demographic weakness of Amerindian populations due to absence of animal milk requiring prolonged breastfeeding

• Statistical methodology for world estimates: Historians must use “orders of magnitude” rather than precise figures, assuming relatively stable proportions between world regions over time

  • Method involves extrapolating from known European and Chinese figures using coefficients of 4-5 times to estimate world totals
  • Approximate balance between Europe (extended to Urals) and China represents “one of the most visible structures in world history”

• Estimated world population trends 1300-1800: World population likely doubled over this period despite massive mortality crises

  • 1300: approximately 250-350 million
  • 1800: approximately 836-1380 million
  • Average growth rate of 1.73 per 1000 - barely perceptible year-to-year but representing fundamental demographic expansion

A scale of reference

• Modern population comparisons reveal historical smallness: 1980 world population of 4 billion represents 5 times 1800 levels and 12 times 1300 levels

  • These coefficients demonstrate how fundamentally different past human societies were in scale and organization
  • Small numbers had proportionally much greater impact than equivalent numbers today

• Military forces reflect population constraints: Largest European armies rarely exceeded 10,000-20,000 men before 1600

  • Battle of Pavia (1525): decisive European battle fought with tiny forces that would fit on modern cruise ships
  • Lepanto (1571): 100,000 men represented extraordinary mobilization equivalent to 500,000-1 million today
  • Feeding and moving larger forces was logistically impossible given agricultural productivity

• Urban populations were correspondingly small: Cologne, Germany’s largest 15th-century city, had only 20,000 inhabitants

  • Istanbul with 400,000-700,000 was an “urban monster” requiring vast supply networks from across the Ottoman Empire
  • Small cities had disproportionate cultural and economic impact due to concentration of talent and resources

• France as case study in premature overpopulation: With 20 million people around 1600, France was already “full as an egg” according to Brantôme

  • Massive French emigration to Spain (possibly 200,000 in 1669) indicates population pressure
  • Early adoption of birth control in 18th century France represents reaction to centuries of demographic pressure

• Population density thresholds for civilization: Approximately 30 people per square kilometer represents minimum density for civilizational development

  • Italy (44/km²), Netherlands (40/km²), France (34/km²) already showed signs of demographic tension
  • Any density increase meant choosing between food types, transforming agriculture, or emigration

The eighteenth century: watershed of biological regimes

• The end of the demographic ancien régime: For centuries, birth and death rates both hovered around 40 per 1000, with deaths regularly canceling out births through epidemic and famine cycles

  • 18th century marked first sustained period when births consistently exceeded deaths in developed regions
  • Traditional demographic balance maintained through “social massacres” that primarily targeted the poor

• Famine as permanent feature of life: France experienced 10 general famines in 10th century, 26 in 11th, continuing through 16 in 18th century

  • Even privileged countries like Florence had 111 hungry years between 1371-1791 with only 16 “very good” harvests
  • Famine inevitably followed two consecutive bad harvests due to poor cereal yields and lack of reserves

• Urban responses to demographic crises: Towns developed increasingly harsh policies toward rural poor seeking refuge during famines

  • Troyes (1573): systematic expulsion of beggars with bread distribution followed by forced removal
  • 17th century saw creation of workhouses and “great enclosure” of poor, mad, and delinquent in institutions like Paris Grand Hôpital (1656)

• Disease patterns and epidemic cycles: Complex interaction between undernourishment and epidemic disease, with “the best remedy against malaria is a well-filled pot”

  • Diseases jumped between human masses following trade routes
  • New diseases like syphilis (post-1493) spread rapidly across connected world, reaching China by 1506-7
  • Tuberculosis became “leading disease of Romantic Europe” after more virulent strain arrived from India in 18th century

• The plague as supreme terror: Two forms - pulmonary (Black Death) and bubonic - caused by virus transmitted by fleas from rats

  • Social discrimination evident: rich fled to country houses, poor remained trapped in infected towns
  • Last major European outbreaks: Marseilles 1720, Moscow 1770, Balkans 1828-9 and 1841
  • Retreat explained by stone replacing wooden houses, increased cleanliness, and removal of animals from dwellings

The many against the few

• Numbers determine civilizational hierarchies: Dense populations generally dominated sparse ones, though technology and organization could occasionally reverse this pattern

  • Population density directly correlates with military capability, economic development, and cultural achievement
  • Approximately 13 true civilizations existed circa 1500, occupying only 10 million km² (7% of land surface) but containing majority of human population

• The “barbarian” conquest myth: Successful “barbarian” conquerors were invariably semi-civilized peoples already deeply influenced by adjacent civilizations

  • Germanic tribes, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Manchus all spent long periods in “antechambers” of civilization before conquest
  • Barbarian victories were short-term; conquerors quickly absorbed by conquered civilizations
  • True barbarians from marginal lands (Randvölker) posed no lasting threat to developed societies

• The nomadic threat and its decline: Great Eurasian nomads represented speed and mobility in an otherwise slow-moving world

  • Nomadic strength depended on weakness of civilizational frontiers, particularly in northern China and India
  • Cyclonic movements: pressure in one region created vacuum effects drawing nomads eastward or westward
  • Decisive end came with gunpowder technology and strengthened frontier defenses by 17th century

• Three types of civilizational expansion:

  • Against empty space: European colonization of Americas, Russian expansion into Siberia - easiest conquests creating moving frontiers
  • Against cultures: More difficult encounters with semi-developed peoples who could be exploited economically but remained capable of resistance and eventual recovery
  • Civilization vs. civilization: Most dramatic conflicts with lasting consequences, as seen in British victory at Plassey (1757) beginning era of European dominance over other major civilizations

• The geographical basis of civilizational development: Hewes’ map reveals 76 distinct human societies circa 1500, with only 13 qualifying as full civilizations

  • Civilizations formed narrow belt around Old World: Japan, Korea, China, Indochina, Indian Archipelago, India, Islamic world, and four European regions
  • Permanent settlement patterns: civilizational boundaries remained remarkably stable across centuries, forming geographical constants comparable to physical features

Part 2: Daily Bread

Wheat

Wheat served as the dominant food crop of Western civilization, though it faced constant challenges from low yields, climate variations, and the need for complex agricultural systems requiring crop rotation and livestock integration.

• Wheat’s global presence extended beyond Europe: The crop grew across northern China, Japan, southern China (as secondary harvest between rice crops), India’s dry plains, Persia, Egypt, and Mediterranean oases

  • Chinese cultivation used different methods: “planted in holes” rather than broadcast sown, “uprooted with whole stem” using hoes rather than reaped
  • Chinese rarely made bread from wheat, preferring vermicelli, gruels, and lard cakes - “wheat [in China] is always cheap” because it was a minor product

• European expansion carried wheat to new territories: Russian colonization brought it to Siberia and Ukraine, creating massive surpluses by the 18th century

  • Ukraine produced such abundance that “piles of grain the size of houses, enough to feed all Europe, are again rotting in Podolia and Volhynia” (1771)
  • American colonies developed wheat cultivation in the 17th-18th centuries, with Boston ships carrying flour to Caribbean sugar islands and Mediterranean by 1739

• Wheat never grew alone but formed complex agricultural systems: Multiple grain qualities existed (wheat, maslin, rye) alongside older cereals like spelt, millet, and barley

  • Rye became increasingly important in northern Europe - “rye bread is not as nourishing as wheat and loosens the bowels a little” according to 18th-century doctor
  • By 1792 in France, rye was grown in 2:1 ratio compared to wheat, and arable land was equally divided between bread cereals and “lesser cereals”

• Rice served as emergency food in the West: Imported from Indian Ocean since antiquity, grown in Italy from 15th century, but remained food for the poor

  • During French famines of 1694 and 1709, “boats laden with rice from Alexandria in Egypt were ‘an expedient to feed the poor’”
  • Mixed with other flours to make bread during Venetian famines, distributed as “economical rice” mixed with turnips and carrots in Paris

• Crop rotation systems varied by region but always required fallow periods: Northern Europe used triennial rotation (winter cereals, spring cereals, fallow), southern Europe used biennial (wheat alternating with fallow)

  • Triennial rotation around villages created visible pattern: “the three fields (wheat, oats and fallow) dividing the land like sectors of a roughly drawn circle”
  • Fallow land was essential for soil recovery and required extensive manuring - “wheat requires careful manuring” while oats received none

• Integration of grain and livestock was essential: Grain cultivation required draft animals (horses in north, oxen and mules in south) and manure from livestock

  • “It would have been impossible for a man who could dig two hectares a year at most to prepare the vast areas of arable unaided”
  • System created “vicious circle” - increasing productivity required more fertilizer, which meant more land for livestock at expense of arable crops

• Agricultural revolution remained limited until after 1750: Advanced techniques existed in Artois, northern Italy, Flanders from 14th century, but widespread adoption was slow

  • Solution involved alternating cereals and forage crops with reduced fallow, but “took another hundred years or so to become accepted in a country like France”
  • Traditional wheat culture “really acted as a straitjacket” with structures “farmers were extremely reluctant to forsake”

• Yields remained devastatingly low throughout the period: Normal yields were 5-6 grains harvested for every grain sown, producing only about 6 quintals per hectare

  • Olivier de Serres confirmed: “The farmer generally has something to be happy about when his land yields him an average of five or six to one”
  • Exceptional estates achieved higher yields: Thierry d’Hireçon in 14th-century Artois obtained 8-17 quintals per hectare, Quesnay’s large-scale farming reached 16 quintals

• International grain trade remained marginal despite its strategic importance: Long-distance trade involved only 1% of total consumption in Mediterranean (1-2 million quintals vs. 145 million consumed)

  • Danzig exports peaked at 1.38 million quintals (1618), total European grain trade perhaps 6 million quintals maximum vs. 240 million consumed
  • Trade was “more closely supervised than anything subjected to the attentions of the Inquisition” and remained “marginal, spasmodic”

• Grain prices determined living standards for the masses: Variations created constant social tension, with bread riots erupting whenever prices rose sharply

  • Real wage calculations show wheat cost equivalent of 100 hours’ work was critical threshold - above this “life becomes difficult,” above 200 hours was “danger signal,” 300 hours meant famine
  • Naples riot (1585): when grain merchant told starving crowd to “eat stones,” they murdered him and “dragged his mutilated body round the city”

• Bread quality reflected social hierarchy: White bread remained luxury for tiny minority - “no more than two million men eating wheaten bread” in French, Spanish and English homes combined

  • Poor ate bread made from rye, barley, oats with much bran remaining, or gruels made from various grains
  • Bread weight varied inversely with grain prices while price stayed constant - “Pallavicini has doubled the size of a loaf of bread” meant he doubled buying power of poorest Romans

Rice

Rice cultivation created the foundation for Asian civilizations through intensive agricultural techniques that supported dense populations, but this success came at the cost of social rigidity and geographic limitations that restricted development of mountain regions and livestock farming.

• Rice agriculture enabled far higher population densities than wheat: Paddy-fields could feed 10-20 times more people per unit area than European agriculture

  • One hectare of rice-field produced 30 quintals of rice (21 quintals after milling) = 7,350,000 calories vs. 1,500,000 for wheat and only 340,000 animal calories from livestock
  • Montesquieu observed of rice countries: “Land which elsewhere is used to feed animals there directly serves as sustenance for men”

• Rice dominated Far Eastern diets to extreme degree: Accounted for 80-90% or more of calories consumed, compared to wheat’s 50-70% in Europe

  • Modern Tonkin delta peasant’s diet: 1000 grams white rice (3500 calories) plus only 5 grams pork, 10 grams fish sauce, 20 grams salt, green leaves
  • Chinese workers in Peking (1928): 80% of food expenditure on cereals, 15.8% vegetables, only 3.2% meat

• Dry-land rice cultivation preceded and remained alongside paddy systems: Ladang system involved burning forest sections, broadcasting seed without tilling, then abandoning exhausted land

  • Required enormous space: one square kilometer for 50 inhabitants theoretically, actually about 25, with 25-year forest regeneration cycles
  • Still practiced widely - 95% of world’s aquatic rice concentrated in Far East, but dry rice covered “enormous spaces” as staple for underdeveloped peoples

• Paddy-field construction represented massive hydraulic engineering: Required stable society, state authority, and constant large-scale public works

  • Water had to be continuously circulated for oxygenation despite appearing static - “however static the water in a rice field may appear, it is always in motion”
  • Keng Tche Tau drawings (1210) showed system unchanged through centuries: “the same plough as today, yoked to a single buffalo”

• Multiple harvests revolutionized productivity: Double and triple cropping became possible through careful timing and intensive labor

  • Lower Tonkin calendar: January planting for June harvest (“five-month crop”), immediate replanting for October harvest, then January cycle
  • Introduction of early-maturing Champa varieties (11th century) enabled double harvesting and triggered “great demographic expansion of southern China”

• Rice cultivation created distinctive social patterns: Concentrated villages, intensive manual labor, symbiotic relationship between town and countryside

  • Towns provided human excrement and refuse as fertilizer, which peasants “pay for with herbs, vinegar or money”
  • System eliminated almost all domestic animals except rice-field buffalo “fed on short rations” - Chinese had to become “jack-of-all-trades” pulling ploughs, hauling boats

• Geographic limitations restricted development opportunities: Success in lowland rice areas led to abandonment of mountain regions

  • Chinese highlands remained “virtually deserted” - traveler in 1734 crossing from Ning Po to Peking found mountains empty
  • Contrast with Europe where mountains provided “men, livestock, a whole active capital of energy” - China “deliberately rejected” these resources

• Rice’s dominance shaped eating preferences and cultural values: Asian peoples “prefer rice to tubers and gruel cereals” and considered other foods inferior

  • Japanese cultivate other grains “only between rice harvests or when only dry cultivation is possible” - never eat these cereals “which they think dreary” except from necessity
  • Chinese considered bread-making as foreign as Europeans found rice preparation: “did not know how to knead bread any more than they knew how to roast meat”

• Economic and political systems adapted to rice production: Price variations affected everything including military pay scales

  • China: soldiers’ daily pay “rose and fell with it on a kind of sliding scale”
  • Japan: rice served as actual currency before 17th-century reforms, with prices multiplying tenfold between 1642-3 and 1713-15

• Demographic pressure eventually forced expansion beyond rice: 18th-century population growth brought hill cultivation and American crops (maize, sweet potatoes)

  • Japan under Tokugawa: population rose to 30 million by 1700, requiring agricultural revolution with improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers representing “30% to 50% of working expenses”
  • Introduction of complementary crops like cotton, colza requiring “double or triple the amount of fertilizer” and “twice as much manpower”

Maize

Maize represented a revolutionary crop that sustained the great pre-Columbian civilizations of America through its extraordinary productivity, then spread globally after 1500 to become a crucial food source, though its adoption was slow in Europe and often associated with poverty and social disruption.

• Archaeological evidence proves American origins: Fossilized maize pollen found 50-60 meters deep around Mexico City, with Tehuacan valley excavations revealing complete evolutionary history

  • Wild maize 7,000-8,000 years ago was “small plant” with ears only 2-3 centimeters long containing 50 grains
  • Cultivated varieties developed rigid leaf sheaths that prevented natural seed dispersal, making plants completely dependent on human intervention

• Maize enabled the great American civilizations: Extraordinary yields of 70-80 to one in dry zones, up to 800 to one on best Mexican land near Queretaro

  • Required only 50 working days per year from cultivators - “one day in seven or eight” - freeing labor for massive public works
  • Made possible “giant Mayan or Aztec pyramids, cyclopean walls of Cuzco or wonders of Machu Pichu” because “maize virtually produces itself”

• Transport and distribution networks were essential: Grain had to be moved from limited growing areas to populations at different altitudes

  • Yura Indians today still make 3-month journeys from 4,000-meter heights to maize regions, trading salt for corn, coca, alcohol
  • Panama silver route depended entirely on maize imports from Nicaragua or Chile - 1626 crisis only resolved by emergency shipment of 100-150 tons from Peru

• Nutritional limitations created social problems: Maize-based diet was inadequate without meat supplementation, leading to widespread malnutrition

  • Modern Andean peasants live on “maize, more maize and dried potatoes” with only coca leaves to “numb pangs of hunger, thirst, cold and fatigue”
  • Alcoholic drinks from maize (chicha, sora) provided escape but were “dangerous drinks vainly forbidden by sensible authorities”

• European spread was remarkably slow: Despite arriving in 1493, widespread adoption didn’t occur until 18th century, 200+ years later

  • Botanists noted it in herbals by 1536, but remained in kitchen gardens rather than fields
  • Balkans adoption delayed by taxation avoidance - grown in gardens and hidden areas “far off the main roads” until 18th century

• Regional names reflected confusion about origins: Called “Rhodes corn” (Lorraine), “Spanish corn” (Pyrenees), “Turkish corn” (Germany, Holland), “Christian corn” (Turkey)

  • Garonne valley evolution: arrived 1637 as “Spanish millet,” displaced actual millet which became “French millet,” finally took millet’s name entirely by 1655

• Early European success occurred in specific regions: Venetia adopted it from 1539, spreading throughout Terra Firma by 1600

  • Polesina region with intensive capital investment experimented with grana turca in whole fields from 1554
  • Southwest France (Bearn) used it as fodder from 1523, gradually becoming human food for the poor

• Social stratification determined consumption patterns: Invariably became food of the poor while upper classes rejected it

  • Bearn (1698): “Millac is a sort of grain from the Indies, which the people eat”
  • Lisbon: “principal food of the poor people,” Burgundy: “gaudes, cornflour cakes… food eaten by the peasants”

• Economic advantages drove eventual adoption: High yields and ability to grow on fallow land revolutionized agricultural economics

  • Peasants ate maize and sold wheat for double the price
  • 18th-century Venetia exported 15-20% of cereal crop thanks to maize, comparable to England’s export proportion in 1745-55

• Global spread included Africa and Asia: Portuguese introduced to Congo as “Massa ma Mputa” (Portuguese grain) in early 16th century

  • Initial resistance in Congo - 1597 report said it was “less highly prized than other cereals and was used not to feed men, but for pigs”
  • China received it by continental and sea routes in first half of 16th century, but widespread adoption only occurred after 1762 during population expansion

• Integration with existing agricultural systems: Often grown alongside American beans which enriched soil

  • Olivier de Serres noted both “fagiali and grana turca invaded Italy together” by 1590
  • Eventually enabled revolutionary reduction in fallow periods and increased overall agricultural productivity

The dietary revolutions of the eighteenth century

The eighteenth century marked a watershed in global food systems as American crops finally achieved widespread acceptance in Europe and Asia, driven by demographic pressure and recurring famines, fundamentally altering eating habits and agricultural practices after two centuries of resistance.

• American crops overcame initial European resistance through necessity: Potatoes and maize, rejected for 200+ years as “sticky and indigestible,” became essential as population growth created food crises

  • Europeans initially “considered potatoes a sticky and indigestible food; maize is still despised in south-east China where rice still rules”
  • “It was the poor who first opened their doors to them; and demographic growth subsequently turned them into desperate necessities”

• Potato adoption followed patterns of warfare and famine: Military conflicts repeatedly demonstrated potato’s advantages over grain crops

  • Alsatian peasants valued potatoes “because it is never exposed… to the ravages of war” - armies could camp all summer without destroying autumn crop
  • Every major war encouraged adoption: War of Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War, “Potato War” of 1778-9

• Regional variations in potato acceptance were extreme: Ireland embraced it as primary food by 18th century, while France remained largely resistant until 19th century

  • Ireland: potatoes with “a little milk and cheese” became “almost exclusive diet of the peasants” - land supporting one person on wheat could feed two on potatoes
  • France in 1764: King of Poland’s adviser noted “I should like to introduce potato-growing, which is almost unknown”

• Cultivation advantages overcame social prejudices: Potatoes avoided traditional agricultural constraints of tithes, feudal dues, and seasonal labor conflicts

  • Often not subject to tithes, leading to lawsuits that trace early adoption in southern Netherlands (1680s) and United Provinces (1730s)
  • Could be stored underground safely during military campaigns, unlike grain crops vulnerable to armies

• Maize revolution accelerated in established growing regions: Areas that had experimented with maize for centuries suddenly expanded production dramatically

  • Venetia used maize to end “previously recurrent famines” - despite pellagra risks, provided escape from “much less palatable famine foods”
  • Lauraguais region: “maize by supplying the bulk of the peasants’ food, makes it possible for wheat to become a marketable crop”

• Broader vegetable revolution accompanied grain changes: Kitchen gardens expanded into field cultivation of turnips, carrots, cabbages

  • Adam Smith (1776): “Potatoes… turnips, carrots and cabbages… were formerly never raised but by the spade, but which are now commonly raised by the plough”
  • Flanders calculation: grain consumption fell from 0.816 kg per person daily (1693) to 0.475 kg (1791) as potatoes replaced 40% of cereal intake

• Asian adoption of American crops enabled demographic expansion: China incorporated maize and sweet potatoes to support 18th-century population growth

  • China: maize spread beyond original Yunnan/Fukien bases after 1762, enabling hill cultivation outside traditional rice-growing plains
  • “Restored the demographic balance between northern and southern China, the south having been much more populous hitherto”

• Cultural resistance patterns revealed deep food preferences: Elite classes universally rejected new crops regardless of nutritional or economic advantages

  • Elbe region (1781): “not a valet or servant would deign to eat tartoffeln ‘Lieber gehn sie ausser Dienst’: they prefer to change masters”
  • Montenegro traveler described “heavy cornballs… their golden yellow flour is pleasing to the eye but unpalatable to the stomach”

• Global food integration accelerated: Plants crossed oceans in both directions more rapidly than in previous centuries

  • “Old World travelled to the New… in return New World plants reached the Old: in one direction went rice, wheat, sugar cane and coffee bush; in the other maize, potatoes, haricot beans, tomatoes, manioc and tobacco”
  • World population increases may have resulted partly “from increased production of foodstuffs which the new crops made possible”

The rest of the world

Beyond the dominant grain civilizations lay vast territories inhabited by peoples using simpler agricultural techniques - hoe cultivators and primitive hunter-gatherers - whose ways of life represented earlier stages of human development but who occupied enormous areas and possessed their own sophisticated adaptations to local environments.

• Hoe cultivation formed a global belt encompassing huge territories: Extended through Oceania, pre-Columbian America, Black Africa, and parts of south/southeast Asia

  • Represents “extremely old” agricultural revolution, possibly predating plough agriculture by millennia, originating perhaps in fifth millennium BC
  • Tools determined by population pressure: digging stick adequate for sparse populations, hoe necessary when grass replaced forest, plough required for intensive cultivation

• Hoe cultivators shared remarkable cultural homogeneity: Despite global distribution, showed consistent patterns of technology, housing, and crops

  • Houses “almost invariably rectangular and has only one storey,” used “coarse pottery,” “rudimentary hand loom for weaving”
  • Raised “goats, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens and sometimes bees (but not cattle),” lived off “bananas, bread-fruit trees, oil palms, calabashes, taros and yams”

• African systems exemplified hoe agriculture’s characteristics: Congo cultivation required “little work because of the great fertility of the soil”

  • “They do not plough or dig, but scratch the earth a little with a hoe to cover the seed. In return… they reap abundant harvests, provided that rainfall is not deficient”
  • More productive per unit of labor than European tillage but “not conducive to dense human settlement”

• Pre-Columbian America represented major variation: Descended from Asian populations who crossed Bering Straits possibly 48,000-46,000 years ago

  • Split into “tiny groups which developed in their own way in isolation, building up their own cultures and languages without making contact”
  • “Small numbers of original Asian immigrants” meant “everything was created from scratch” using local resources

• American civilizations achieved remarkable heights despite technological limitations: Maize cultivation supported sophisticated societies while requiring minimal labor

  • Peasants worked “only fifty days in the year, one day in seven or eight” leaving time for “gigantic public works of the Egyptian type”
  • Produced “Mayan or Aztec pyramids, cyclopean walls of Cuzco or wonders of Machu Pichu” through organized surplus labor

• Portuguese contact introduced new crops gradually: Manioc, sweet potatoes, groundnuts, maize arrived in Congo but integration was slow

  • New World crops “grew only moderately well among the established plants: maize and manioc side by side with various kinds of millet”
  • African palm trees remained distinctive: provided “oil, wine, vinegar, textile fibres and leaves” - “products of the palm are to be found everywhere”

• Polynesian expansion demonstrated sophisticated capabilities: Occupied “enormous maritime triangle, from Hawaii to Easter Island and New Zealand in the thirteenth century”

  • Navigator skills enabled settlement across Pacific, but “civilized man has driven them far into the background”
  • Tahitians encountered by Cook and Bougainville cultivated “gourds and sweet potatoes… as well as yams and sugar cane” and “reared pigs and poultry in abundance”

• Primitive peoples occupied lowest cultural level: Lived by “gathering plants, hunting and fishing” without agriculture, occupying “vast expanses of land”

  • Australian aborigines observed by Cook: “lived a nomadic existence, without possessions… We never saw an inch of cultivated land in their country”
  • Tierra del Fuego inhabitants: “perhaps as miserable a set of People as are this day upon Earth” with only “harpoons, bows and arrows” and sealskin clothing

• North American Indians showed cultural gradations: Ranged from agricultural peoples to pure hunter-gatherers

  • Agricultural Indians grew maize and used hoes or digging sticks - “settled or semi-settled peasant community, however unsophisticated”
  • Hunting tribes displaced by European fur trade: “Indian hunters were chased out by the fur traders” who disrupted traditional fishing and hunting grounds

• European colonization systematically disrupted traditional systems: Capitalism penetrated native economies, transforming subsistence patterns

  • Fur trade “dispersed their poor nomadic settlements” as Europeans sought “deer, lynxes, martens, squirrels, ermine, otters, beavers, hares and rabbits”
  • “European capitalism laid hands on the great stocks of furs and skins of America - enough to challenge before long the hunters of the forests of Siberia”

• Synchrony and diachrony of human development: Contemporary world still contained all stages of agricultural development

  • “Agricultural revolution did not take place only in a few privileged areas… It had to spread to new regions and its progress was not accomplished in a single movement”
  • “Varieties of human experience are spread out over a single itinerary, but at several centuries distance”

Part 3: Superfluity and Sufficiency: Food and Drink

Eating habits: luxury and the foods of the masses

This chapter argues that the distinction between luxury and necessity in food has been constantly shifting throughout history, with luxury serving as both a marker of social distinction and a testing ground for what eventually becomes accessible to the masses.

• The fluid nature of luxury: Luxury is an “elusive, complex and contradictory concept” that constantly changes over time

  • Sugar was a luxury before the 16th century; pepper remained luxurious until the late 17th century
  • Items like forks, glass window panes, flat plates, and even chairs were once luxury items
  • Indian troops in WWII Italy were amazed that “there were chairs in all the houses”
  • The rich serve as unwitting pioneers: “they try out the pleasures that the masses will sooner or later grasp”

• Carnivorous Europe and the golden age of meat consumption (pre-1550): Europe experienced unprecedented meat consumption during the late medieval period

  • The period from 1350-1550 represented a “favourable period as far as individual living standards were concerned”
  • Following the Black Death, labor scarcity led to higher real wages and better living conditions
  • German inns in 1580 served multiple meat dishes simultaneously; butchers’ shops overflowed with beef, mutton, pork, poultry, and abundant game
  • Large-scale cattle trade supplied European cities: herds of 16,000-20,000 oxen moved from Eastern Europe to German markets
  • Even craftsmen received substantial meat rations: Saxon ordinance of 1482 mandated four courses including two of meat for daily meals

• The great regression: declining meat consumption after 1550: A dramatic reversal occurred as population growth outpaced food production

  • Heinrich Muller observed in 1550 Swabia that peasants who once ate meat daily now had “food worse than day-labourers and valets in the old days”
  • By 1600, German copper miners could only afford “bread, gruel and vegetables” on their wages
  • The number of butchers in Montpezat fell from 18 in 1550 to just 1 in 1763
  • Paris meat consumption averaged 51-65 kg per person annually (1751-1854), but Lavoisier estimated French average at only 23.5 kg in 1789
  • German consumption fell from 100 kg in late medieval period to under 20 kg per year in early 19th century

• The rise of salt preservation and dietary adaptation: As fresh meat became scarce, preserved meats became essential

  • Salt beef and pork furnished “the poor of Europe with their meagre meat ration”
  • Werner Sombart identified a “revolution in salting” at the end of the 15th century to supply ships
  • In 18th-century Burgundy, “pork provides the greatest part of meat consumed in the peasant’s household”
  • Fresh meat became “a luxury reserved to convalescents”

• European privilege in global context: Despite declining standards, Europe remained better fed than other civilizations

  • In Japan, “the only meat they eat is game which they kill by hunting”
  • Chinese consumption was minimal: meat was “chopped into tiny pieces” and mixed with vegetables as flavoring rather than served as main dishes
  • A European observer noted Chinese ate “very little butcher’s meat” because “the surplus of population” required land for grain rather than grazing
  • Chinese literature reveals meat as rare luxury: a father-in-law proudly offers “two pounds of dried venison” as special treat

• Table manners and luxury implements: The gradual adoption of refined dining customs reflected social stratification

  • Individual forks appeared around 1600, spreading slowly from Venice; Anne of Austria ate with her fingers all her life
  • Louis XIV forbade his grandsons from using forks at table, preferring traditional hand-and-knife eating
  • Separate dining rooms only became common among French rich in the 16th century; before then nobles ate in their kitchens
  • A 1624 Austrian ordinance still instructed officers not to “lick the fingers” or “spit in the plate” at formal dinners

• Salt as universal necessity: Despite being essential, salt remained subject to extensive trade networks and taxation

  • Required for human and animal needs plus food preservation, salt overcame all obstacles in trade
  • Swiss canton of Valais imported salt from distances of 870-2300 kilometers via complex routes
  • European consumption was double modern levels (20 grams daily per person) due to reliance on “insipid farinaceous gruels”
  • French peasant uprisings against salt tax (gabelle) may have been driven by literal “hunger for salt”

Drinks, stimulants and drugs

The chapter demonstrates how Europe experienced a revolution in beverages and stimulants between the 16th-18th centuries, transforming from a wine-and-beer society to one increasingly dependent on alcohol, coffee, tea, chocolate, and tobacco.

• Water supply challenges in urban centers: Even wealthy cities struggled with basic water provision

  • Venice relied on elaborate cistern systems filtering rainwater through sand, supplemented by daily boat deliveries from mainland rivers
  • Paris drew primarily from the Seine despite obvious contamination: “dyers pour their dye three times a week into the branch of the river”
  • Few functioning aqueducts existed: notable examples at Istanbul, Segovia, and Rome’s restored Aqua Felice and Aqua Paola
  • Twenty thousand water carriers supplied Paris, taking “thirty loads” daily even to top floors at two sous per load
  • Chinese practice of boiling suspect water and drinking only hot beverages “no doubt considerably contributed to the health of the Chinese population”

• Wine’s geographical and social boundaries: Wine production and consumption followed strict climatic and economic patterns

  • Commercial vine cultivation limited to areas south of 49th parallel, creating “one of the great hinges in the economic life of Europe”
  • Northern Europeans became customers for high-alcohol wines: malmsey, port, sherry, madeira
  • Large-scale trade supplied northern markets: wine flowed from Bordeaux via Garonne, from Burgundy via Yonne to Paris
  • Wine preservation remained primitive until 18th century: in 1500, old Bordeaux cost only 6 livres while new wine cost 50 livres
  • Urban drunkenness increased dramatically in 16th century: Valladolid consumption reached 100 liters per person annually

• Beer as the northern alternative: Beer dominated regions outside vine-growing areas, becoming both necessity and luxury

  • Addition of hops (first recorded 822 AD) transformed beer from local beverage to preserved, tradeable commodity
  • Netherlands developed luxury Leipzig imports alongside cheap popular brews by 16th century
  • Economic hardship drove beer consumption: Le Grand d’Aussy observed that “difficult periods saw an extension of beer consumption”
  • Paris beer production fell from 75,000 hogsheads (1750) to 26,000 (1780), while wine consumption ratio was 13:1 over beer
  • Polish peasants on estates consumed “up to three litres of beer a day”

• The alcohol revolution: Distillation technology created entirely new categories of intoxicants

  • Brandy remained medicinal until late 15th century: sold only by apothecaries as aqua vitae for preserving youth and treating disease
  • Commercial production began early 16th century: Louis XII granted vinegar-makers distilling privileges in 1514
  • Dutch merchants made distillation general on Atlantic coasts in 17th century for transport and preservation advantages
  • Production soared: Sète exports rose from 2,250 hectolitres (1698) to 65,926 hectolitres (1755)
  • European alcohol spread globally as “poisoned gifts”: Mexican state revenue from pulque equaled half the silver mine income

• Coffee’s conquest of Europe: Coffee transformed from exotic medicine to mass consumption within two centuries

  • Originated in Ethiopia, reached Mecca by 1511 (where it was immediately forbidden and re-authorized repeatedly)
  • European introduction via Venice (1615) and Paris Turkish embassy (1669) created initial medical reputation
  • Procope Couteau’s Sicilian café (1686) near Comédie Française established the modern café model with mirrors, chandeliers, and social atmosphere
  • Mass production from New World plantations after 1730: Santo Domingo alone produced 40 million pounds by 1789
  • Parisian street vendors sold café au lait to workers at daybreak for two sous: “they drink it in prodigious quantities, saying it generally sustains them until evening”

• Tea’s selective European adoption: Tea succeeded primarily in northern Protestant countries and Russia

  • Chinese consumption dates to 8th century AD with elaborate ritual and quality distinctions rivaling wine culture
  • European imports began via Dutch East India Company (1610) but remained limited to rough varieties until 1720-30
  • English consumption exploded: exports from Canton rose from 28,000 piculs (1730-40) to 172,000 piculs (1780-85)
  • Massive smuggling operations brought 6-7 million pounds annually to England via continental routes to avoid taxation
  • Russian imports via overland Kiatkha fair reached 500 tons by late 18th century, with tea selling for “as much as twenty francs a pound”

• Chocolate as Spanish luxury: Chocolate remained largely confined to Spain and Spanish territories

  • Arrived from Mexico around 1520, initially regarded as medicine for “moderating vapours of the spleen”
  • Maria Theresa’s secret chocolate consumption despite French court disapproval reflects Spanish cultural attachment
  • Paris in 1768: “the great take it sometimes, the old often, the people never”
  • Spain’s thick chocolates “perfumed with cinnamon” became object of foreign mockery
  • Aaron Colace’s Bayonne operation (1727) exemplifies the specialized trade networks required for colonial processing

• Tobacco’s global triumph: Tobacco achieved the most complete worldwide penetration of any New World stimulant

  • Originated in Caribbean, initially introduced to Europe as medicinal curiosity by Jean Nicot (1560)
  • Cultivation spread rapidly: Spain (1558), Philippines (1575), Virginia (1588), Java (1601), India (1605-10)
  • Government prohibitions encircled the world but failed: England 1604, Ottoman Empire 1611, China 1642, but use became universal regardless
  • By 1640 in China “everyone has a long pipe in his mouth”; by 18th century consumption extended “down to toddlers two feet high”
  • Virginia and Maryland exports reached 30,000 kegs annually by 1723, requiring 200 ships and supplying two-thirds for re-export to northern Europe

Part 4: Superfluity and Sufficiency: Houses, Clothes and Fashion

Houses throughout the world

This chapter argues that housing patterns reflected deep civilizational differences, with building materials, construction techniques, and domestic arrangements revealing fundamental economic and cultural constraints across different societies.

• Building materials created hierarchies of permanence and status: Stone buildings lasted centuries while wood and earth structures required constant maintenance

  • Stone construction required significant capital investment and skilled craftsmen
  • Wealthy could afford stone foundations with wooden upper floors
  • Poor lived in structures of wood, clay, and thatch that deteriorated rapidly

• Traditional civilizations maintained consistent housing patterns across centuries: Conservative societies showed remarkable stability in domestic architecture

  • Chinese house layouts remained virtually unchanged from 15th to 18th centuries
  • Islamic housing consistently featured interior courtyards and closed exterior facades
  • Japanese residential architecture maintained traditional forms despite political changes

• European housing showed most rapid innovation and regional variation: Western domestic architecture evolved continuously, reflecting economic dynamism

  • Paris transformed from wooden medieval city to stone construction in 16th-17th centuries
  • Dutch innovations in glass windows and interior heating spread gradually across Europe
  • Regional differences persisted but were gradually overcome by fashion and trade

• Climate and available materials shaped fundamental housing patterns: Geography imposed basic constraints that culture could modify but not eliminate

  • Northern European houses required heating systems and weather protection
  • Mediterranean construction emphasized cooling and shade
  • Tropical regions developed raised structures and ventilation systems

• Urban housing density created new social problems and solutions: City growth forced innovations in multi-story living and space utilization

  • Paris tenements packed multiple families into single rooms by 18th century
  • Amsterdam developed narrow, tall houses to maximize expensive urban land
  • London’s growth after 1666 fire led to new building regulations and techniques

• Rural-urban housing gaps widened over time: Improvements in urban housing contrasted sharply with continued rural poverty

  • City merchants built elaborate townhouses while peasants lived in single-room huts
  • Urban areas gained access to glass windows, chimneys, and furniture while rural areas lagged
  • Wealthy built country estates as retreats, creating hybrid rural-urban architectural forms

Interiors

The chapter examines how interior spaces and furnishings revealed social hierarchies and cultural values, with furniture and domestic arrangements serving as markers of wealth, refinement, and civilizational achievement.

• Poverty meant near-complete absence of possessions: The poor lived with minimal furniture and household goods across all civilizations

  • Rural inventories typically listed only basic cooking pots, rough clothing, and straw bedding
  • Urban poor often owned nothing beyond their clothes and a few eating utensils
  • Even modest prosperity brought dramatic improvements in domestic comfort

• Traditional civilizations maintained stable interior arrangements: Conservative societies showed little change in furniture or domestic organization

  • Chinese interiors preserved the same basic layout and furniture styles across centuries
  • Islamic homes featured consistent patterns of low tables, cushions, and carpets
  • Japanese houses maintained traditional floor-level living with minimal, movable furnishings

• Europe experienced continuous innovation in domestic comfort: Western interiors showed constant evolution in furniture, decoration, and spatial organization

  • Chairs evolved from rare status symbols to common furniture for middle classes
  • Specialized furniture emerged: writing desks, gaming tables, storage chests
  • Room specialization increased, with separate spaces for sleeping, eating, and socializing

• Heating systems divided civilizations along technological lines: Effective heating solutions determined comfort levels and architectural possibilities

  • European fireplaces and German stoves provided localized heat but wasted fuel
  • Chinese kang systems used heated floor platforms for efficient warmth
  • Many civilizations relied on braziers or body heat, limiting comfort in cold climates

• The sitting versus squatting divide marked fundamental cultural differences: Body positions reflected deep cultural patterns and social arrangements

  • Europeans used chairs and high tables for eating and working
  • Most Asian societies preferred floor-level activities with low tables
  • China uniquely maintained both systems, with formal chairs for officials and floor seating for domestic life

• Luxury expressed itself through textiles rather than furniture: Rich households invested in fabrics, tapestries, and decorative cloth rather than elaborate furniture

  • Medieval and Renaissance interiors featured extensive tapestries and hangings
  • Carpets, cushions, and bed curtains provided color and comfort
  • Wooden furniture remained relatively simple even in wealthy homes until 18th century

Costume and fashion

This chapter argues that clothing and fashion changes served as indicators of social mobility and civilizational dynamism, with stable societies maintaining consistent dress codes while dynamic societies embraced rapid changes in style.

• Stable societies maintained unchanging costume traditions: Conservative civilizations showed remarkable consistency in clothing across centuries

  • Chinese mandarin dress remained virtually identical from 15th to 18th centuries
  • Islamic societies preserved traditional robes and covering practices
  • Japanese kimono styles showed minimal variation over long periods

• European fashion exhibited increasing pace of change: Western clothing styles accelerated their rate of transformation, especially after 1650

  • Medieval clothing remained stable for centuries at a time
  • Renaissance began more frequent style changes among upper classes
  • 17th-18th centuries saw annual or seasonal fashion cycles emerge

• Poverty meant exclusion from fashion systems: Poor people wore functional clothing that changed little across generations

  • Peasant dress remained essentially identical from medieval to early modern periods
  • Working clothes prioritized durability and practicality over appearance
  • Feast-day costumes might be handed down through families for generations

• Fashion served as weapon in social competition: Rapid style changes allowed elites to distinguish themselves from rising middle classes

  • Sumptuary laws attempted to restrict lower classes from wearing luxurious materials
  • New styles emerged partly to maintain distance from social climbers
  • Fashion acceleration increased as more people gained disposable income

• Textile trade drove global economic connections: Demand for fashionable fabrics created international trading networks

  • Silk routes connected China to European markets
  • Cotton trade linked India to European and American consumers
  • Wool production and processing became major European industries

• Regional fashions reflected political and economic hierarchies: Dominant powers set styles that subordinate regions imitated

  • Spanish fashion dominated Europe in 16th century during Spanish hegemony
  • French styles became standard in 17th-18th centuries with French cultural dominance
  • Local variations persisted but gradually gave way to international trends

Part 5: The Spread of Technology: Sources of Energy, Metallurgy

The key problem: sources of energy

The chapter demonstrates that energy constraints fundamentally limited pre-industrial civilization, with Europe’s relatively superior energy resources contributing significantly to its eventual technological and economic dominance.

• Human and animal power provided most energy before industrialization: Muscle power remained the primary energy source across all civilizations

  • One human generated only 3-4 hundredths of one horsepower
  • Horses provided 27-57 hundredths of one horsepower but were expensive to maintain
  • China relied heavily on human labor, with hundreds of men pulling boats through canal locks

• Europe possessed superior animal power resources: Western Europe developed more efficient animal-powered systems than other regions

  • By 1789, France had 1.78 million horses and 3 million oxen for 25 million people
  • American colonies rapidly adopted European animals, especially mules for transport
  • China and India had relatively few horses and relied more on human carriers

• Water and wind power created first mechanical revolution: Mills represented Europe’s earliest systematic mechanization

  • 500,000-600,000 mills operated in Europe by 18th century, equivalent to 1.5-3 million horsepower
  • Watermills spread from grain-grinding to textile production, metalworking, and sawing
  • Windmills became especially important in Netherlands for drainage and in grain-poor regions

• Wood consumption reached crisis levels by 18th century: Forest resources became severely strained by growing demand for fuel and construction

  • France consumed approximately 20 million tons of wood in 1789, mostly for fuel
  • Iron production required vast forest areas - one furnace used as much wood as a medium-sized town
  • Deforestation forced industries to relocate or reduce production

• Coal offered solution but faced adoption barriers: Despite availability, coal use remained limited until industrial breakthrough

  • Coal was known and used in both China and Europe for centuries before industrial revolution
  • Technical problems with coal in iron production prevented widespread adoption
  • England led in coal use for heating, brewing, and non-metallurgical industries

• Energy transportability became crucial limitation: Most power sources could not be moved far from where they were generated

  • Watermills had to be located at specific sites with adequate water flow
  • Wood transport was economical only within 30-kilometer radius unless waterways available
  • Animal power was mobile but required food supplies that limited range

Iron: a poor relation

This chapter argues that iron remained a minor material compared to wood and textiles throughout the pre-industrial period, with limited production and primitive techniques preventing the metal from playing the transformative role it would assume after 1800.

• Iron production remained tiny by modern standards: Pre-industrial metallurgy operated on a completely different scale than industrial production

  • European iron production was only 100,000 tons in 1525, 180,000 tons in 1700
  • Individual blast furnaces produced only 100-150 tons per year compared to thousands today
  • World iron production around 1800 may have reached 2 million tons at most

• Chinese metallurgy achieved early advances but then stagnated: China developed superior techniques centuries before Europe but failed to progress further

  • Chinese discovered cast iron and coal-fired smelting by 5th century BC
  • Damascus steel production used crucible methods unknown to Europeans until 19th century
  • After 13th century, Chinese metallurgy made no significant advances

• European progress came through gradual incremental improvements: Western metallurgy advanced slowly through water-powered machinery and blast furnaces

  • Water-wheels powered bellows and hammers, enabling larger-scale production
  • Blast furnaces appeared in 14th century, allowing continuous operation
  • Regional specialization developed, with centers like Brescia focusing on weapons

• Fuel shortages limited metallurgical expansion: Iron production was constrained by availability of charcoal and wood

  • Iron furnaces consumed wood from areas equivalent to 2000 hectares of forest
  • Many furnaces operated only intermittently due to fuel shortages
  • Competition between iron-makers and other wood users drove up costs

• Transportation difficulties kept production localized: Heavy iron products could not economically travel long distances

  • Most iron markets remained within 50-100 kilometers of production sites
  • Only specialty products like weapons and tools justified long-distance transport
  • Water transport enabled some regional trade, especially from Sweden and Spain

• Other metals often played more important economic roles: Copper, silver, and gold drove more investment and technological innovation than iron

  • Copper mining attracted major capitalist investment from Fuggers and others
  • Silver production drove development of advanced mining techniques
  • Precious metals financed global trade networks while iron remained local

Part 6: The Spread of Technology: Revolution and Delays

Three great technological innovations

The chapter argues that technological “revolutions” between the 15th-18th centuries were actually gradual processes that spread slowly across civilizations, with only ocean navigation creating lasting global asymmetry.

• Technology spread gradually across civilizations: Most innovations eventually reached all groups rather than remaining exclusive to their inventors

  • Arabic numerals, gunpowder, compass, paper, silkworms, and printing presses all diffused worldwide
  • New techniques established so slowly in origin locations that neighbors had time to learn and adopt them
  • Artillery appeared at Crecy (1346) and Calais (1347) but wasn’t decisive in European warfare until Charles VIII’s Italian expedition (1494) - after 150 years of development

• The origins and spread of gunpowder demonstrate typical diffusion patterns: Chinese invented gunpowder in 9th century AD, first firearms in 11th century, but technology spread gradually

  • Chinese produced gunpowder with saltpetre, sulphur, and crushed charcoal from 9th century; first dated Chinese cannon from 1356
  • Cannon appeared in Flanders around 1314-1319, Metz 1324, Florence 1326, England 1327
  • Real impact came with Hussite wars (1427) using light artillery on wagons and Charles VII’s victories over English
  • Development of corned gunpowder around 1420 provided sure, instantaneous combustion replacing old packed mixtures

• Artillery evolved from static to mobile warfare: Early artillery was cumbersome and difficult to transport

  • Early pieces were short, lightweight weapons with limited gunpowder supply due to scarcity and cost
  • 15th century saw enormous bombards like German Donnerbuchsen - massive bronze tubes in wooden cradles
  • Mobile artillery appeared with Bureau brothers for Charles VII’s victories at Formigny (1450) and Castillon (1453)
  • Charles VIII’s 1494 Italian expedition featured cannon on gun-carriages drawn by horses, shooting iron balls at walls rather than just houses

• Naval artillery developed irregularly across maritime powers: Shipboard cannon installation was haphazard despite early adoption

  • English ship Mary of the Tower carried cannon in 1338 (before Crecy), but 30 years later English ships were destroyed by Castilian artillery off La Rochelle
  • Venice had no evidence of galley artillery in 1378 Genoan wars, but Venetian ships carried cannon by 1440
  • By 16th century, privateering forced all vessels to carry artillery; no distinction between war and merchant ships
  • Rule emerged of one artillery piece per ten tons capacity

• Small firearms transformed infantry warfare over two centuries: Arquebuses gradually replaced traditional weapons despite technical limitations

  • Arquebuses appeared around early 16th century; defenders at Brescia siege (1512) used them extensively
  • French forces lagged behind German, Italian, and Spanish armies initially; Pavia disaster (1525) partly due to Spanish arquebusiers
  • Pikemen remained necessary because arquebuses required long manipulation time with prongs, loading, and fuse lighting
  • Final transformation came with rifles (1630), paper cartridges (1670-1690), and bayonets by end of 17th century

• Arms production required significant capital investment and organization: Only wealthy states could afford new warfare costs

  • Manufacturing concentrated modestly due to diverse needs: gunpowder, arquebus barrels, side-arms, heavy artillery required different facilities
  • Major arsenals established: François I founded 11 arsenals, France had 13 by end of his reign
  • Venice’s security required 1,800,000 ducats worth of powder - equivalent to city’s annual receipts
  • Spanish Netherlands maintenance (1554): 50 pieces cost over 40,000 ducats monthly, required 4,777 horses for transport

• European artillery expertise gave global advantages: Superior training and application, not just technology, determined military success

  • Turks excellent at earthworks and gunning but couldn’t adopt heavy cavalry pistols by 1550
  • Chinese and Japanese had excellent saltpetre but inferior gunpowder; didn’t shoot arquebus bullets with sufficient charge
  • European artillery schools in towns trained gunners who traveled worldwide as mercenaries
  • Until Aurangzeb’s death (1707), Great Mogul’s Indian gunners were European mercenaries

From paper to the printing press

The chapter demonstrates how printing technology, originating in China, was transformed and spread by European economic and social conditions to create a communications revolution.

• Paper production preceded and enabled printing revolution: Chinese paper technology reached Europe via Islamic countries in 12th-14th centuries

  • First Spanish paper mills in 12th century; European industry established in Italy early 14th century near Fabriano
  • Water-powered ‘beaters’ (wooden pounders) fitted with anvil-cutters and nails shredded rags
  • Paper’s sole advantage over parchment was price: 150-page parchment manuscript required dozen sheep skins
  • Increased linen cloth production from 13th century provided abundant rag supply, though crises led to conflicts between papermakers and rag collectors

• Printing with moveable type may have originated in China: Chinese had printing since 9th century, moveable type by 1040-1050

  • Pi Cheng first devised moveable pottery characters fixed with wax in metal forme (1040-1050)
  • Moveable wooden characters widespread by early 14th century; metal characters perfected in first half of 15th century
  • Portuguese travelers may have brought Chinese printed books to Europe, suggesting technology transfer via Tartary and Muscovy
  • European invention around 1440-1450 required precise alloy of lead, tin, antimony for durable type

• Printing technology spread rapidly but remained unchanged for centuries: Craft emerged from goldsmith milieu rather than woodcut manufacturers

  • Three essential operations: steel punch cutting, copper matrix stamping, character casting in alloy
  • Bar press appeared mid-16th century, hardly altered until 18th century; Gutenberg would feel at home in Louis XVI’s print shop
  • 110 European towns had printing presses by 1480; 236 towns by 1500
  • Albrecht Pfister first incorporated woodcut in printed book (1461), ending wood’s competition with moveable type

• Book production reached massive scale by 1500: Estimated 20 million incunabula (pre-1500 books) for 70 million European population

  • 16th century production: 25,000 titles in Paris, 13,000 Lyon, 45,000 Germany, 15,000 Venice, 10,000 England
  • Average 1,000 copies per title suggests 140-200 million books representing 140,000-200,000 titles
  • European presses exported to Africa, America, Balkans, Constantinople via Jewish refugees
  • Reached India (Goa 1557), Macao (1589), Nagasaki (1590) - full circle if Chinese origin theory correct

• Publishing became capital-intensive industry from start: High costs and slow returns made printers dependent on money-lenders

  • Materials frequently renewed, high labor costs, paper over double other expenses, slow capital returns
  • Major publishers emerged: Barthélemy Buyer (Lyon), Antoine Verard (Paris), Giunta family (Florence)
  • Anton Koberger published at least 236 works in Nuremberg (1473-1513); Aldo Manutio dominated Venice
  • Book fairs at Lyon, Frankfurt (16th century), Leipzig (17th century) created international trade networks

• Printing accelerated intellectual currents and mathematical revolution: Expanded access to classical knowledge enabled scientific progress

  • 15th century incunabula predominantly Latin religious literature; classical texts appeared early 16th century
  • Greek mathematics, especially Archimedes’ work on infinitesimal and limit concepts, became widely available
  • Discovery of number function y = f(x) leading to 17th century mathematical revolution depended on printed access to Archimedes
  • Reformation and Counter-Reformation used books to spread ideas; printing served various intellectual movements

The triumph of the West: ocean navigation

The chapter explains how Europe alone mastered ocean navigation despite other civilizations having equal or superior maritime technologies, creating the first global asymmetry in world history.

• Maritime civilizations formed continuous network across Old World: Connected civilizations from European Atlantic to Pacific, but remained separate

  • Jean Poujade’s concept of single “route to the Indies” from Mediterranean to Indian Ocean
  • Nechao’s canal connected Nile to Red Sea until St. Louis’s time; Venice and Egyptians considered reopening in early 16th century
  • Maritime frontiers as rigid as continental ones; nations kept to territorial waters despite technological capability
  • Chinese junks superior in many aspects (sails, rudders, watertight compartments, compasses) but didn’t venture beyond Gulf of Tonkin

• Chinese possessed superior naval technology but abandoned ocean exploration: Massive fleets under admiral Cheng Ho demonstrated capability

  • 14th century junks had four decks, watertight compartments, 4-6 masts, twelve large sails, crews of 1,000
  • Seven expeditions (1405-1433): first reached East Indies with 62 large junks; second conquered Ceylon with 27,000 men, 48 ships
  • Seventh expedition (1431-1433) reached Hormuz; fleet landed Chinese Muslim ambassador who possibly reached Mecca
  • All exploration stopped when Ming capital moved from Nanking to Peking (1421) due to northern nomad threats

• European success resulted from combining northern and southern naval technologies: Marriage of Mediterranean and Atlantic techniques

  • Mediterranean: triangular lateen sails (originally Indian, introduced by Islam), clinker-built hulls
  • Northern Europe: square sails, strong clinker construction, centreline rudder operated from inside ship
  • Genoese merchantmen brought technologies together after 1297 direct voyages to Bruges
  • Portuguese caravel (c.1430): small clinker-built ship with centreline rudder, three masts, two square sails, one lateen sail

• Atlantic navigation required conquering psychological barriers, not just technical ones: Fear of unknown ocean greater obstacle than technology

  • Three large wind circuits in Atlantic; Columbus’s voyage demonstrated natural wind patterns for round trips
  • Greatest difficulty was “taking the plunge” (s’engoulfrer) into unknown waters; early Irish and Viking exploits forgotten
  • Portuguese discoveries: Madeira (1422), Azores (1427) followed African coast; return journeys against trade winds much harder
  • Return from Guinea required month-long open sea sailing to Sargasso Sea; return from Mina meant beating against winds to Azores

• Chinese and Muslim sailors technically capable but chose coastal navigation: Cultural preferences rather than technical limitations

  • Japanese junk sailed from Japan to Acapulco (1610) with European crew; two other junks made voyage with Japanese crews
  • Father Mendoza (1577): Chinese “afraid of sea, not accustomed to take risks”; preferred port-to-port sailing
  • George Staunton (1793): Chinese junks superior for Asian conditions with monsoons, but Europeans built for variable winds
  • Muslim Arab pilots guided Vasco da Gama across Indian Ocean, demonstrating sophisticated navigational knowledge

• European ocean mastery resulted from economic pressure and capitalist development: “Proletarian” West needed world more than rich China/Islam

  • China and Islam were wealthy societies with colonial possessions; West comparatively “proletarian”
  • 13th century pressure transformed Western material life and psychology; constant search for practical innovations
  • Accumulation of practical discoveries showed conscious will to master world and growing interest in energy sources
  • Capitalist towns of West provided driving force; without them technology would have been impotent despite capability

Transport

The chapter demonstrates how transportation remained the fundamental constraint on economic development and human communication until the industrial revolution, despite technological advances in other areas.

• Transportation speeds remained constant from Roman times to Napoleon: Paul Valéry’s observation that “Napoleon moved no faster than Julius Caesar” epitomizes pre-industrial limitations

  • Venice news transmission maps (1496-1533, 1686-1701, 1733-1735) show general rule of maximum 100 kilometers per 24 hours
  • Higher speeds very infrequent and expensive luxury; big cities could afford rapid communications through stone/paved roads
  • Roads barely perceptible in Breughel paintings; holes filled with water, vehicles stuck in mud commonplace
  • Same conditions in northern China where travelers crossed tilled land to avoid spoiled roads

• Fixed itineraries governed all transport routes: Travelers remained prisoners of limited choices despite route options

  • Jacob Fries’s 1776 Siberian journey: Omsk to Tomsk (890 km) in 178 hours, 5 km/hour average, changing horses at posting-houses
  • Argentine interior travel required timing to cross despoblados (deserts), find houses, villages, watering-places at intervals
  • Turkish Balkans route to Istanbul: travel morning to night, cold meals at midday, reach caravanserai by evening
  • Chinese Public Itinerary showed roads from Peking with stopping places for mandarins at day’s journey intervals

• Sea routes equally fixed by winds, currents, and ports: Maritime travel bound by experience-dictated rules

  • Spain-Indies route established by Columbus, slightly modified by Alaminos (1519), unchanged until 19th century
  • Return journey went north to 43rd parallel, bringing sudden cold climate contact
  • Urdaneta fixed Acapulco-Manila route (1565): easy three-month journey there, difficult 6-8 month return costing 500 pieces of eight
  • Ships followed appointed stopping points for food, water, repairs; hurricane procedures required anchoring in shallow water

• Water transport brought animation but remained limited: Rivers crucial for regional economies despite constraints

  • Without Seine, Oise, Marne, Yonne, Paris would lack food, drink, warmth; without Rhine, Cologne wouldn’t be largest German town
  • Southern China from Blue River to Yunan borders had unequaled water transport with “perpetual movement” of boats
  • Father de Magaillans: “two empires, one on water, other on land, and as many Venices as there are towns”
  • Poland-Lithuania zone beyond Oder developed extensive river transport with immense tree-trunk rafts with sailor cabins

• Carriage costs created major economic constraints: Transport expenses regularly 10% ad valorem, sometimes much higher

  • Netherlands cloth to Florence (1320-1321): carriage costs ranged from 11.7% to 20.34% of goods value
  • 17th century France: 100-120 francs to carry wine cask worth 40 francs from Beaune to Paris
  • Land routes more expensive than sea routes; 13th century English grain increased 15% per 80 kilometers overland vs. 10% additional for Gascony wine shipped to Hull
  • Jean-Baptiste Say (1828): Americans warmed with English coal from 1000 leagues rather than wood from 10 leagues away

• Europe attempted to overcome transport limitations through horse-based improvements: Various strategies to combat distance tyranny

  • Multiple horse teams (5, 6, 8 horses), fresh horses at staging-posts, improved roads for urgent travelers
  • Overland transport superior to slow river/canal transport; northern French coal carried in wagons rather than barges
  • First revolution in road travel (1745-1760): prices fell, small speculative capitalists profited
  • France had 12,000 kilometers completed roads, 12,000 under construction by 1787; Ponts et Chaussées budget rose from 700,000 under Louis XIV to 7 million pre-Revolution

Problems of the history of technology

The chapter argues that technology cannot be understood in isolation from social and economic contexts, and that innovation requires societal pressure and support to succeed.

• Agricultural technology receives inadequate attention despite historical importance: Agriculture was mankind’s great “industry” for millennia

  • Historians focus on mechanics, metallurgy, energy sources as pre-history of industrial revolution
  • Agricultural innovations had far-reaching consequences: planting techniques, land clearing, drainage, irrigation, dykes
  • New World plants (China: maize, ground nuts, sweet potatoes; Europe: maize, potatoes, beans) marked major historical turning points
  • Agricultural work is “mass of the masses”; no innovation valuable except in relation to social pressure maintaining it

• Technology depends entirely on social context rather than existing independently: Modern and historical examples demonstrate social determination

  • Before 18th century, science little concerned with practical solutions; technology was craftsmen’s tricks accumulated leisurely
  • Exceptions like Huygens’s pendulum (1656-1657) and adjusting spiral (1675) revolutionizing clockmaking confirm the rule
  • Good technical manuals appeared slowly: Agricola’s De Re Metallica (1556), Ramelli’s machines (1588), Zonca’s theater (1621)
  • Engineer profession emerged slowly; École des Ponts et Chaussées founded Paris 1743, École des Mines 1783

• Existing practices and social resistance created barriers to innovation: Workers and established interests opposed changes

  • French printing workers struck mid-16th century against press changes reducing worker numbers
  • Workers resisted “beetle” improvement for spring shears (enormous fabric-cutting scissors)
  • Textile industry showed little development 15th-mid-18th century due to elaborate division of operations, low wages enabling market competition without change
  • James Watt confided to friend Snell (1769): “in life there is nothing more foolish than inventing”

• Successful inventions required alignment with particular social needs: Venetian patents demonstrate problem-specific innovation

  • Nine-tenths of Venetian Senate patents addressed city’s particular problems: navigable waterways, canal digging, water raising, swamp draining
  • Mills without hydraulic power needed in stagnant water world; saws, millstones, hammers for tannin or glass materials
  • Philip II’s reign: Baltasar de Rios proposed dismantleable large-calibre cannon transportable on soldiers’ backs - ignored
  • Jean Tardin studied natural gas, described coal distillation in retort (1618) - passed unnoticed, two centuries before gas lighting

• Many crucial discoveries remained dormant until social conditions demanded them: Economic pressure determined innovation timing

  • Jean Rey explained lead/tin expansion after calcination by “incorporation of heavy part of air” (1630) - century before Lavoisier
  • Schwenteer described electric telegraph principles using magnetic needle (1635) - had to wait for Oersted’s experiments (1819)
  • Newcomen’s steam machine (1712): only one operating in England thirty years later; success came in following thirty years for Cornwall tin mines
  • Even during advanced English cotton revolution, entrepreneurs used hand labor for spinning while mechanical weaving looms operated - domestic production cost less

• Crisis conditions force technological innovation as survival strategy: Major challenges compel societies to choose innovation over stagnation

  • Present oil crisis (1970s recession) renewed interest in known alternatives: solar energy, bituminous schists, geothermal sources, vegetable fermentation gas
  • All alternatives explored during last war, then neglected until general crisis confronted developed economies with innovation/death choice
  • Technology responds when society hits “ceiling of possible”; inventors’ blueprints stay in drawers until things go wrong
  • Hundreds of potential innovations always dormant; urgency calls one to life to break obstacles, open different future doors

Part 7: Money

Money

Money operates as both an instrument and indicator of economic and social relationships, revealing the health and complexity of any moderately developed commercial life through its circulation patterns and scarcity.

• The Disturbing Nature of Money: Money consistently surprised and confused humanity throughout history, bringing sharp price variations, incomprehensible relationships, and transforming human work into a commodity

  • Noel du Fail’s 16th-century Breton peasants expressed bewilderment at how money drained their abundance to pay lawyers and doctors for services previously handled locally
  • Money introduced foreign spices and luxuries that seemed both harmful and necessary, making people feel they lived “in a new world”

• Universal Pattern of Monetary Disruption: Any society opening its doors to money loses its acquired equilibria and liberates forces that can never be adequately controlled

  • Similar crises affected Turkey under the Osmanlis (late 16th century), Japan under the Tokugawas, and modern underdeveloped countries where 60-70% of transactions still occur without money
  • The monetary economy benefits privileged individuals while hurting everyone else, forcing entire societies to “turn over a new leaf”

• Forced Entry into Monetary Systems: Common people were compelled to obtain cash through various demands - rents, tolls, salt-taxes, market purchases, and taxes

  • A Breton tenant farmer in 1680 brought thirty livres rent to Madame de Sevigne in an enormous weight of copper coins
  • The 1547 French declaration made salt-tax collection in money compulsory, replacing payment in kind

• The Great Monetary Circuits: Money organized global transfer routes and centers for profitable exchanges between money and valuable commodities

  • Travelers like Magellan, del Cano, Francesco Carletti, and Gemelli Careri successfully circumnavigated the globe carrying pieces of eight and silver
  • European monetary policy succeeded in reshaping worldwide monetary structures to its advantage

• Money as Economic Indicator: The monetary economy’s flexibility and complexity directly reflect the economy’s own characteristics, creating as many monetary systems as there are economic rhythms and situations

  • Money serves as both symptom and cause of economic changes, inseparable from the movements that create it
  • Historical metaphors comparing money to blood, fat, or oil in the social body miss the essential point of the monetary economy itself

Imperfect currencies and economies

Barter remained the dominant exchange method across enormous areas from the 15th-18th centuries, supplemented by primitive currencies that were perfectly adequate for the economies employing them, though often inadequate when confronting more advanced monetary systems.

• Primitive Currencies Worldwide: Various commodities served as money based on local availability and needs

  • Salt functioned as money in Upper Senegal, Upper Niger, and Abyssinia, where cubes could be “eaten as well as spent”
  • Cotton cloth served as currency in Monomotapa and Gulf of Guinea, where “a piece of India” initially meant cloth equivalent to one slave’s price, later referring to the slave himself
  • Sea-shells (zimbos and cowries) circulated extensively, with cowries shipped from Maldives and Laccadives to Africa, India, and Burma

• African Currency Systems: Complex monetary arrangements developed using various non-metallic standards

  • Copper bracelets (manillas), gold dust, and horses all functioned as currency, with magnificent Moorish horses priced at fifteen slaves each
  • English merchants in early 18th century established competitive exchange rates: one captive “piece of India” equaled four ounces of gold, thirty silver piastres, three-quarters pound of coral, or seven pieces of Scottish cloth
  • Modern survival: Italian-made coral money (olivette) still circulated in 20th-century Nigeria and West Africa

• Monetary Inflation and Collapse: European contact consistently caused catastrophic inflation in primitive currency systems

  • Counterfeit wampum production in glass paste led to total disappearance of the original shell money
  • Congo zimbos devalued 10% between 1575-1650 when Portuguese seized the “fishing grounds of money” off Loanda island
  • European workshops deliberately flooded markets with imitation currencies to facilitate trade dominance

• Barter Within Monetary Economies: Even “civilized” countries maintained extensive barter systems beneath the surface of monetary exchange

  • Scottish villages in Adam Smith’s time (1775) still used nails instead of money for purchases
  • Catalan Pyrenees villagers paid shopkeepers with small sacks of grain
  • Russia only began regular money minting in the 16th century with German coin imports; barter continued until Peter the Great’s reign

• Colonial American Monetary Problems: Limited monetary circulation forced reliance on substitute currencies and extensive barter

  • Various regions used tobacco (Virginia), sugar, cocoa, or “card money” (French Canada) as currency
  • Mexican tlacos - small wood, lead, or copper tokens issued by shop owners - filled the gap left by large-denomination silver coins
  • Philadelphia merchant in 1721 described money as “so scarce that we begin to be racked by lack of a means of payment”

• European Barter Persistence: The “Truck system” remained common throughout Europe well into modern times

  • German cutlers, miners, and weavers received payment in victuals, salt, cloth, and overpriced goods
  • French schoolmasters were still paid in poultry, butter, and corn in recent centuries
  • Genoese innovation: turning exchange fairs into clearing-houses where millions changed hands with minimal actual coin transfer

Outside Europe: early economies and metallic money

Japan, Islam, India, and China represented intermediate stages between European monetary sophistication and primitive economies, each developing monetary systems suited to their specific economic relationships and geographical positions.

• Japan’s Gradual Monetary Development: The 17th-century monetary economy slowly penetrated traditional rice-based exchange systems

  • Rice continued as primary currency alongside new copper, silver, and gold coins
  • Western Japan saw one-third of peasant dues paid in money rather than labor or rice allowances
  • Government interference and samurai moral philosophy slowed adoption, as thinking about money was considered dishonorable

• Turkish Monetary Complexity: The Ottoman Empire operated sophisticated currency systems while serving as a conduit for Western silver

  • Gold sultanins, silver piastres (grouck), and copper paras/aspres formed hierarchical currency structure
  • Foreign coins traded at premium: Venetian sequins worth 5.5 piastres, Dutch thalers at 60 paras, Austrian thalers at 101-102 paras
  • All incoming Western money was melted down and sent as ingots to Persia and India, then reminted as larins and rupees

• Indian Monetary Chaos and Silver Hunger: The subcontinent’s complex currency systems reflected both regional diversity and massive precious metal imports

  • Three major monetary expansions occurred in 13th, 16th, and 18th centuries, but standardization never achieved
  • Northern regions used silver/copper bi-metallism with rupees and copper coins; southern regions preferred gold pagodas
  • Massive global silver drain to India: “all the gold and silver which circulates in the world ultimately goes to the Great Mogul”

• China’s Unified but Primitive System: The Middle Empire maintained monetary coherence through copper-based currency and silver ingots

  • Abandoned paper money after 14th-century inflation (1000 notes worth 3 copper coins by 1448), returning to ancient copper caixas/sapekes
  • Silver remained unminted, circulating as boat-shaped ingots cut with scissors and weighed for transactions
  • Every Chinese carried scissors (trapelin) and precision scales (litan) for daily silver transactions, even children knowing metal purity assessment

• Chinese Silver Demand: Despite being called a “suction pump,” China’s silver hunger was limited by its enormous size and controlled circulation

  • Single piece of eight could buy six months of bread or hire monthly cooking service
  • Imperial government controlled copper/silver exchange rates through strategic releases of metals from state-owned mines
  • 18th-century Canton experienced price rises due to European trade impact, showing system wasn’t completely stable

Some rules of the currency game

European monetary systems operated at multiple levels - barter, metallic money, and credit - creating a vast network that extended globally and established hierarchical relationships between different economies.

• Competition Between Metals: Gold, silver, and copper constantly competed with each other, creating long-term oscillations in relative values

  • “Silver and gold are hostile brothers” - one metal’s abundance drove out the other through Gresham’s law
  • 1550-1680: American silver abundance made gold scarce and valuable, benefiting holders of silver (like the Fuggers)
  • Post-1680: Brazilian gold discoveries gradually restored gold’s position, reaching 1:14.93 ratio by 1741-1750

• Economic Health Indicators: The dominant metal in circulation revealed an economy’s condition and sophistication

  • Healthy economies used silver or gold; struggling economies relied on copper (Spain and Naples in 18th century)
  • Naples 1751: despite 10 million gold ducats in circulation, copper dominated actual transactions because it “stayed where it was”
  • Spain 1724: most payments made in cumbersome copper alloy, accepted by weight rather than count

• Flight and Hoarding Problems: European monetary systems suffered from two chronic diseases that constantly drained the money supply

  • Precious metals persistently flowed eastward to pay for Asian silk, pepper, spices, and pearls
  • Massive hoarding in jewelry, plate, and stored coins: Galiani estimated Naples hoards at 4:1 ratio to circulating money in 1751
  • Government hoarding: famous examples include Sixtus V’s treasure, Sully’s reserves, and Frederick William I’s unused war chest

• Money of Account Systems: Imaginary units of currency (like French livre tournois) provided stability amid constantly changing coin values

  • Real coins continuously rose in value as governments devalued currency units
  • No contemporary ever held an actual livre or sou - these were accounting units like modern credit scores
  • Devaluation of money of account stimulated price rises: in France 1471-1598, devaluation caused 209.6% of total 621.6% price increase

• Velocity of Circulation: Money multiplied its effect through rapid circulation, with each coin changing hands multiple times

  • Naples 1751: 18 million ducats in circulation settled 144 million ducats worth of transactions (8x velocity)
  • Extreme example: Paris ecu could change hands 50 times in 24 hours during peak commercial activity
  • Siege of Tournay 1745: 7,000 florins borrowed weekly from canteens for seven weeks, effectively creating 49,000 florins purchasing power

• Persistent Barter Economy: Even in 18th-century monetary economies, vast populations remained outside cash transactions

  • Naples: peasants (75% of population) settled less than 10% of consumption in cash
  • Workers paid in cash immediately spent it “from hand to mouth” (della mano alla boca)
  • Baratto (barter) remained standard practice, with goods exchanged at authority-fixed prices settled later

Paper money and instruments of credit

Credit instruments and paper money developed as natural responses to metallic currency shortages, representing ancient techniques rediscovered and refined rather than revolutionary innovations.

• Ancient Origins of Credit: Written financial instruments preceded modern banking by millennia, appearing wherever writing and coinage coexisted

  • Babylon used notes and cheques between traders twenty centuries before Christ
  • Alexandria became major international transit center using sophisticated credit systems
  • Islamic merchants (10th century AD) employed bills of exchange, promissory notes, letters of credit, and bank notes found in Cairo geniza documents

• European Rediscovery and Innovation: The West rediscovered bills of exchange in the 13th century, gradually expanding their use and complexity

  • Bills initially traveled simple routes from market to market during Crusades period
  • Innovation of endorsement (1410) and circulation from fair to fair (le change et le rechange) extended credit periods
  • Fictitious bills and self-drawn credit became common during 17th-century economic difficulties

• Early Bank Notes and Scriptural Money: True bank notes emerged from practical commercial necessity rather than governmental decree

  • London goldsmiths’ notes circulated widely by mid-17th century; one goldsmith had £1,200,000 in notes circulating by 1666
  • Casa di San Giorgio issued biglietti from 1586; Venetian banks di scritta used exchangeable notes from 15th century
  • Bank of England’s 1694 innovation: organized issuing bank with note circulation exceeding actual deposits

• Paper as Monetary Substitute: Various papers circulated as money during cash shortages, creating impromptu credit systems

  • Government bonds traded like currency: Venetian, Florentine, Genoese bonds sold freely; French rente certificates used for major purchases
  • Spanish juros served as payment to businessmen, who transferred risks by using them for their own transactions
  • Even grain warehouse receipts (Sicilian cedole) and export permits (Neapolitan tratte) became tradeable instruments

• Crisis-Driven Innovation: Monetary breakdowns repeatedly forced creation of paper money and credit substitutes

  • Paris 1647-1649: currency shortage led to payments of 1/4 cash, 3/4 notes or bills of exchange
  • William Petty’s advice (1682): “too little money” required establishing banks to create credit and increase money’s effectiveness
  • Louis XIV’s wars financed through financiers advancing money via bills of exchange, recovering through royal revenues

• Schumpeter’s Synthesis: The ultimate recognition that money and credit represent different aspects of the same fundamental process

  • Everything can be viewed as money (increasing circulation volume) or as credit (promises and deferred reality)
  • Even metallic money functions as credit instrument - a claim on future consumer goods and services
  • Modern theory recognizes money as credit instrument, with consumer goods as only final means of payment

• Money and Credit as Language: These techniques form inherited languages that every developing society must learn and speak

  • More developed economies employ wider ranges of monetary instruments and credit facilities
  • International monetary hierarchy created unity through injustice, with some societies favored, others handicapped
  • Economic pressure drives automatic evolution of more complex monetary languages when simpler systems prove inadequate

Part 8: Towns and Cities

Towns: the problems of definition

Towns serve as “electric transformers” that increase tension, accelerate exchange, and constantly recharge human life, representing the fundamental division of labor between rural and urban activities.

• Universal characteristics of towns: Despite geographical and temporal differences, all towns share common features including continuous dialogue with rural surroundings, self-consciousness as distinct entities, location at communication network centers, and hierarchical relationships with other cities

  • Towns never exist in isolation but form networks where some are dominant, others subordinate
  • Even humble town-dwellers must obtain food through markets, making towns generalizers of market activity
  • All towns require some form of protective and coercive power structure

• Population thresholds and definitions: Official definitions vary widely, with France setting the minimum at 2,000 inhabitants and Britain at 5,000, making comparative urban statistics problematic

  • Varzy (2,000 inhabitants in 1700) exemplified a true town with its own bourgeoisie, lawyers, ironworks masters, and wood merchants
  • Medieval Germany had 3,000 places with city status averaging only 400 inhabitants each
  • Small French towns like Arcis-sur-Aube (900 inhabitants) and Chaource (227 households) maintained urban functions despite tiny populations

• Urban hierarchies and networks: Towns form systematic hierarchies defined by administrative suffixes in China (fu, chu, hien) and functional relationships everywhere

  • The “combined weight” of all urban settlements in relation to total population provides better insight into social and economic structures than individual city statistics
  • Urbanization rates varied dramatically: Russia showed only 2.5% in 1630 rising to 13% by 1897, while Holland achieved 51% by 1515 and 65% by 1797
  • Colonial America reached about 10% urbanization by 1700, with Japan achieving 22% by 1750

The ever-changing division of labor

The division of labor between countryside and urban centers remains fluid and contested throughout history, with neither side automatically dominant in this “class struggle.”

• Town-countryside interdependence: Towns cannot exist without rural hinterlands, requiring approximately 8.5 square kilometers of agricultural land to support a town of 3,000 inhabitants in the eleventh century

  • Every town needed its “scrap of rural life attached” to impose its market, shops, weights and measures, and services on surrounding areas
  • Rural areas simultaneously “ruralized” towns through capital investment in land, country houses, and agricultural ventures

• Blurred boundaries in practice: Medieval and early modern towns remained heavily agricultural, with inhabitants engaging in farming, vine-growing, and animal husbandry within city walls

  • Artisans regularly left towns during harvest season to work in fields, as documented in Flanders, England, and Florence
  • Towns maintained gardens, orchards, and rotating crop fields, with the noise of flails heard near town halls in German cities
  • As late as 1746, Venice had to prohibit pig-keeping within the city and monasteries

• Industrial migration patterns: From the fifteenth century onward, urban industries increasingly moved to rural outskirts seeking cheaper labor outside guild supervision

  • Villages maintained essential craftsmen (wheelwrights, blacksmiths) and took on textile work expelled from towns
  • In non-Western contexts like India, villages remained largely self-sufficient, calling on towns only for rare commodities like iron tools
  • Russian villages handled most industrial tasks due to slow urban growth, with estate owners establishing viable industries using serf labor

The town and its newcomers: mainly the poor

Towns depend on constant recruitment of newcomers, primarily from poor rural regions, creating systematic networks of migration and social stratification.

• Recruitment patterns and origins: Major cities drew workers from specific regions in established partnerships - Friuli supplied Venice with laborers, Kabylia provided workers for Algiers, and various French provinces sent specialized workers to Paris

  • In 1788 Paris, Savoyards worked as decorators and sawyers, Auvergnats as water-carriers, Limousins as masons, with each group maintaining organized dormitories and mutual support systems
  • Cities also attracted high-quality recruits including merchants, craftsmen, professionals, and artists from other urban centers

• Demographic necessity: Pre-nineteenth century cities suffered high mortality rates with scarcely any excess of births over deaths, making constant immigration essential for growth

  • Paris averaged 20,000 deaths annually even after the 1780s, with 4,000 ending their days in poorhouses
  • An estimated 7,000-8,000 children were abandoned annually out of 30,000 births, many transported from provinces in padded boxes by professional carriers
  • Cities required continuous renewal of their labor force, particularly for the lowest and most dangerous occupations

The self-consciousness of towns

Towns between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries maintained distinct identities through physical barriers and legal privileges that separated them from their immediate surroundings.

• Fortification as urban definition: Nearly all continental European towns had ramparts that created “restrictive and distinctive geometry,” though Britain, Venice, Japan, and the Ottoman interior were notable exceptions

  • Furetière’s 1690 dictionary defined a town as “the home of a large number of people which is normally enclosed by walls”
  • Chinese towns featured impressive brick walls covered with porcelain-hard clay, with gates guarded more for collecting fees than security during peaceful periods
  • Walls often enclosed fields and gardens along with buildings, creating space for food production during sieges

• Citizenship and exclusion: Medieval towns operated as “exclusive, Lilliputian empires” where crossing gates meant entering another world entirely

  • Venice’s 1297 serrata closed the Great Council to new members, creating a hereditary nobility, while requiring 15-25 years residence for various levels of citizenship
  • Marseilles in the sixteenth century required ten years’ residence, property ownership, and marriage to a local woman for citizenship
  • Guild systems created “exclusive contiguous monopolies” that determined who could practice crafts and trades within city walls

• Urban planning and expansion: When towns needed more space, walls were moved “like theater sets” in cities like Ghent, Florence, and Strasbourg, while Renaissance planning introduced geometric grid patterns

  • Medieval towns developed complicated street plans through haphazard growth, contrasting with surviving Roman grid patterns in Turin, Cologne, and Ratisbon
  • New World towns followed predetermined geometric plans, particularly Spanish American cities with streets cutting cuadras at right angles converging on the Plaza Mayor
  • Artillery and carriages from the fifteenth century onward forced expensive reconstruction of fortifications and urban surgery for wider streets

Towns, artillery and carriages in the West

Fifteenth-century military and transportation innovations forced fundamental changes in urban design and expansion patterns across Western Europe.

• Artillery’s impact on fortification: Traditional medieval walls became obsolete against cannon fire, requiring replacement with expensive wide ramparts, bastions, and terrepleins

  • These new fortifications could no longer be moved economically, blocking urban expansion and forcing vertical growth with houses reaching five, six, eight, or even ten stories
  • Paris restricted building height to seventy feet not including roofs, while cities like Genoa, Paris, and Edinburgh built increasingly tall structures to accommodate population within confined spaces
  • Venice’s advantage in lacking walls allowed comfortable expansion through wooden piles and stone, with systematic “zoning” pushing heavy industry to peripheral islands

• Carriage revolution and urban surgery: The sixteenth-century proliferation of wheeled carriages demanded urgent urban reconstruction and planning

  • Bramante’s demolition of old quarters around St. Peter’s in Rome (1506-14) preceded Baron Haussmann as an early example of comprehensive urban renewal
  • Pietro di Toledo’s wide street construction in Naples (1536), Genoa’s Strada Nuova (1547), and Pope Sixtus V’s three radiating thoroughfares from Rome’s Piazza del Popolo represented similar modernization efforts
  • Thomas Dekker predicted “the world will run on wheels” as carts and coaches created “thundering” in London streets

Geography and urban communications

Every town’s permanent location determines its eternal advantages and disadvantages, with initial site choices creating lasting patterns of development and constraint.

• Site advantages and constraints: Bahia’s steep slopes prevented wheeled traffic and required cranes to move merchandise between port and city, while Constantinople’s position across water bodies necessitated constant ferry operations

  • Geographic advantages could be nullified by technological change, as when Seville lost its monopoly to Cadiz (1685) due to ships becoming too large for the Guadalquivir bar
  • Cologne benefited from being at the meeting point of two Rhine shipping routes, while Ratisbon served as a reloading point for vessels with excessive draft

• Transport networks and urban hierarchy: The speed of transport determined the spacing of secondary towns, creating relay points four to five hours apart in southern/western Germany, seven to eight hours apart in northern/eastern regions

  • Canton’s exceptional position allowed sea vessels and junks to connect with sampans reaching Chinese interior via canals, though Manchu policy artificially restricted European trade there
  • Every town served as a movement center giving new impetus to trade, “constantly dispatching goods and people in all directions, and quickly replacing them with others”

• Markets as urban essence: Towns exist primarily as markets, with weekly or daily markets providing supplies within small radii while powerful towns drew on amazingly distant regions by the fifteenth century

  • Paris markets included the Halles, game markets, and daily invasions by bakers from Gonesse and 5,000-6,000 peasants bringing vegetables, fruit, and flowers nightly
  • Venice’s multiple markets (Rialto, St. Mark’s Square, district squares) received supplies from surrounding villages, Padua gardeners, and boatmen bringing sheep cheese from Lombardy
  • Vietnamese towns remained “little populated on ordinary days” but transformed during twice-monthly great markets into scenes of intense commercial activity

Urban hierarchies

Small towns inevitably develop around large centers at distances determined by transport speed, creating networks of functional interdependence and specialization.

• Systematic urban networks: Great cities require rings of secondary towns for specialized functions - weaving and dying, transport organization, port services

  • Florence used Leghorn as its sea port (preferring it to hostile Pisa), while Alexandria and Suez served Cairo, Tripoli and Alexandretta served Alepeo, Jedda served Mecca
  • The Netherlands formed “an archipelago of towns” around Bruges (fifteenth century) and later Antwerp, with Henri Pirenne noting “the Netherlands are the suburb of Antwerp”
  • Patterns could be circular, linear with intersections, or mere points, with some relationships lasting centuries while others proved temporary

• Network evolution and urban competition: Faster transport speeds could bypass relay points, leading to gradual depopulation of secondary towns in favor of capitals

  • Sebastien Mercier observed in 1782 that “towns of the second and third rank are imperceptibly becoming depopulated to the benefit of the capital”
  • François Mauriac’s description of Bazas cathedral (once a flourishing bishopric center, now a “somnolent straggling village”) exemplified this process of urban decline
  • Thomas More’s fictional Utopia featured fifty-three cities around capital Amaurote, each less than twenty-four miles apart - the network would change if transport accelerated

Towns and civilizations: the case of Islam

Towns serve as products and expressions of their civilizations, with Islamic cities following distinctive patterns found from Gibraltar to the Sunda Isles.

• Islamic urban characteristics: Islamic towns featured low, clustered houses (high buildings prohibited as marks of pride), narrow streets where “two asses with pack-saddles” could barely meet
  • Streets in Istanbul, Cairo, and Persian cities were typically narrow, dirty, and winding, with houses projecting over ground floors and frequent holes dug for urination according to religious law
  • Despite apparent confusion, Islamic towns followed regular plans with Great Mosque at center, shopping streets (souqs) and warehouses (khans) around it, craftsmen in concentric circles reflecting clean/unclean distinctions
  • Perfume and incense merchants (considered “clean” and “devoted to the sacred”) located near Great Mosque, while curriers, blacksmiths, and animal-hirers occupied outer limits

The originality of Western towns

Western European towns achieved unparalleled freedom that allowed them to develop autonomous economic and political systems, distinguishing them from cities elsewhere in the world.

• Three stages of Western urban development:

  • Type A (ancient): Open towns like Greek/Roman cities integrated with surrounding countryside, where Athens included both urban and rural citizens as equals
  • Type B (medieval): Closed cities as self-sufficient units with walls marking boundaries of exclusive ways of life, where crossing gates meant entering “another world”
  • Type C (early modern): Subjugated towns disciplined by emerging states, exemplified by Medici control of Florence through the Pitti Palace and secret gallery to Uffizi

• Urban freedom and autonomy: Western towns uniquely won the competition against territorial states in Italy, Flanders, and Germany, becoming autonomous city-states with privileges “like juridical ramparts”

  • Towns organized taxation, finances, public credit, customs, and invented public loans (Venice’s Monte Vecchio from 1167, Casa di San Giorgio from 1407)
  • They reinvented gold money (Genoa’s genovino from late twelfth century), organized industry and guilds, developed long-distance trade, bills of exchange, trading companies, and accountancy
  • Florence by the late fourteenth century produced “the perfect bourgeois” according to Werner Sombart, with victory of Arte Maggiori (wool and cloth guilds) in 1293

• Capitalism and urban development: Towns and capitalism were “basically the same thing in the West,” with cities creating modern states even as they were absorbed by them

  • Lewis Mumford’s metaphor of capitalism as “the cuckoo’s egg laid in the confined nests of medieval towns” captured how commercial systems outgrew their urban origins
  • Even when politically subjugated, towns continued ruling through state institutions: Portugal converged on Lisbon, Netherlands on Amsterdam, English primacy was London’s primacy
  • Spanish imperial economy’s weakness lay in basing itself on controlled Seville rather than a powerful free town capable of independent economic policy

The big cities

Large urban agglomerations emerged in the West from the sixteenth century onward, coinciding with the development of modern centralized states and rivaling traditional Eastern metropolises.

• State capitals and urban growth: Capital cities achieved privileged status through political centralization, competing in modernization with pavements, street lamps, steam pumps, water systems, and numbered houses

  • London and Paris led the movement, but Naples also achieved 300,000 inhabitants by late sixteenth century, while Paris doubled from 180,000 (1594) to perhaps 360,000 by Richelieu’s time
  • Other capitals followed: Madrid, Amsterdam, Vienna, Munich, Copenhagen, and St. Petersburg, while colonial American cities remained smaller despite regional importance
  • Political arithmetic suggests that “the vaster and more centralized the state, the greater the chance its capital had of being populous”

• Eastern urban traditions: Islamic and Asian cities had long featured enormous populations tied to imperial power - Istanbul with 700,000 (sixteenth century), Peking with three million (1793), Delhi’s massive scale under the Great Mogul

  • When Aurangzeb traveled to Kashmir (1663), “the whole town followed him because they could not live without his favours,” estimated at several hundred thousand people
  • Indian capitals moved frequently due to political difficulties or princely whims, with Bengal’s capital shifting from Rajinahal (1592) to Dacca (1608) to Murshihad (1704)
  • Japanese urban development proved more similar to European patterns, with Yedo (Tokyo) growing to over one million by 1609, while Osaka flourished as a merchant center reaching 500,000 by 1783

The function of capital cities

Capital cities produced modern states and national markets while representing enormous expenditure that required outside resources to maintain their luxury and functionality.

• Economic role and costs: These towns “represented enormous expenditure” with economies balanced only by external resources, as “others had to pay for their luxury”

  • London in 1700 could support at most 100,000 people from trade profits (roughly equal to William III’s £700,000 civil list allocation), but actually sustained 700,000+ inhabitants
  • London lived primarily off Crown employment (high officials earning £1000-2000 salaries), nobility settlement, MPs staying with families since Queen Anne’s reign, and government bondholders
  • Paris required 250 million livres annually for humans, 10 million for horses, balanced by only 20 million in commercial profits against 140 million in government bonds/salaries and 100 million from ground rents

• Cultural and political significance: Capital cities created national markets and served as “enormous cultural, intellectual and even revolutionary” centers despite their parasitical nature

  • “British” market resulted not just from political union (1707) or infrastructure improvements, but primarily from London’s role as “mighty beating heart” creating nationwide economic rhythms
  • An Italian observer (1797) noted Paris was “not a real market place” but important for books, art, fashion, money circulation, and speculation, with industry devoted exclusively to luxury
  • These cities marked “a turning-point in world history” by producing modern states, though requiring enormous effort and resources from their territories

Naples, from the Royal Palace to the Mercato

Naples exemplified the extreme social stratification and economic imbalance characteristic of major capital cities in the ancien regime.

• Social extremes and urban structure: With 400,000-500,000 inhabitants by the late eighteenth century, Naples ranked as Europe’s fourth largest city but displayed shocking inequality

  • At least 100,000 people lived as “ragged poor” who “proliferate, without families, having no relationship with the state except through the gallows”
  • Beggars lacked houses, finding “nocturnal asylum in caves, stables or ruined houses” or paying a grana per night for straw and lantern in crowded shelters “like filthy animals”
  • During the 1763-4 famine, people died in the streets while a super-society of courtiers, nobles, ecclesiastics, officials, judges, advocates, and “an army of 30,000 lawyers” maintained their privileges

• Economic parasitism and rural exploitation: The system functioned through systematic extraction from the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily

  • The Church owned “at the lowest estimate two-thirds of the landed property in the kingdom,” nobility held two-ninths, leaving only one-ninth for “gente più bassa di campagna”
  • Former tradesmen could purchase noble titles, with President de Brosses noting “our former butcher no longer practises his trade except through his assistants since becoming a duke”
  • King Ferdinand’s 1785 comment to Grand Duke Leopold captured the dynamic: “I know nothing, and my people are still the liveliest people of all” - liveliness supported by extraction from surrounding territories

St Petersburg in 1790

St Petersburg demonstrates the “monstrous structural disequilibrium” of early modern capital cities, built through imperial will in defiance of natural conditions.

• Challenging site and construction: Founded by Peter the Great (1703) on islands barely above water level, requiring enormous engineering efforts to create habitable urban space

  • Frequent flooding necessitated warning systems (cannon shots, white flags, lanterns on Admiralty Tower, incessant bells), with complete town flooding in 1715 and 1775
  • Impossible to dig cellars due to water at two-seven feet depth, requiring expensive stone foundations even for wooden buildings in damp ground
  • Systematic street and square raising (2-5 feet) after 1770 involved “prodigious task” of building brick/stone masonry and arches to carry roadways while allowing water drainage

• Artificial population and social structure: Rapid growth from 74,273 (1750) to 217,948 (1789) inhabitants created severely unbalanced demographics

  • Sailors, soldiers, cadets and families accounted for 55,621 people (over 25% of population), creating “artificial aspect” with 148,529 males versus only 69,428 females
  • Mixture of nationalities preserved “individual ways of life” with Greek churches next to Protestant places and raskolniki churches
  • “Even the lowest servant speaks Russian, German and Finnish,” with educated residents often speaking eight or nine languages, sometimes mixing them “to quite pleasing effect”

• Imperial luxury and supply problems: Enormous town in poor region created “chronic deficit” requiring imperial treasury and noble incomes to function

  • Sheep and cattle came from Ukraine, Astrakhan, Don, Volga “from 2000 versts away, even from Turkey” to supply the capital’s slaughterhouses
  • Imperial orders regulated carriage privileges by rank: generals could harness six horses plus two leading horsemen, while artisans/tradesmen had only one horse
  • Palaces contained “abundant tapestries, valuable furniture, carved and gilded panelling and ceilings painted in the ‘classical’ style,” requiring vast domestic staffs

Penultimate journey: Peking

Peking exemplifies the ultimate capital city, supporting perhaps three million inhabitants in harsh climate through systematic extraction from the Chinese empire.

• Urban scale and harsh environment: The enormous population endured “cruel Siberian cold, diabolical wind, snow and ice for six months of the year” requiring massive coal consumption and fur clothing

  • Father de Magaillans witnessed 4,000 mandarins in the royal chamber “swathed from head to toe in extraordinarily expensive sables,” while the poor made do with sheepskin
  • Winter cold was “so violent” that north-facing windows couldn’t be opened, ice stayed foot-and-a-half thick for three months, and the imperial canal froze from November to March
  • In 1752, Emperor K’ien Long’s celebration required thousands of servants to beat water preventing freezing, ultimately replacing barges with sledges when ice formed

• City structure and daily life: Peking consisted of old and new towns with systematic organization reflecting Chinese urban planning principles

  • The old square town (Tartar city) contained the Imperial Palace, while the rectangular southern town housed Chinese population after 1644 conquest
  • Wide streets (particularly north-south) followed chequerboard pattern with names like “street of the King’s Parents,” “Iron Lions,” “Dry Fish,” requiring guidebooks for navigation
  • Main commercial street Cham gan kiai stretched “over thirty toises (sixty metres) wide” flanked by imperial palace walls and noble/tribunal buildings

• Commercial activity and imperial wealth: Streets filled with “innumerable multitude” created scenes comparable only to “Fairs and Processions in Europe”

  • Every street lined with shops, taverns, and stalls providing “everything one could want to buy for maintenance, subsistence and even for pleasure at one’s doorstep”
  • Extreme poverty coexisted with luxury: over 1,000 families in Peking lived solely by selling matches and wicks, while others collected rags and paper scraps from street sweepings
  • Imperial income included “eighteen million six hundred thousand silver ecus” plus massive dues in kind: 43,328,134 sacks of rice and corn, over a million loaves of salt, countless silk pieces, live animals, spices, and precious goods filling vast palace storehouses

London from Elizabeth I to George III

London’s transformation from Elizabeth I through George III demonstrates the evolution of early modern capitalism and urban development in its most advanced form.

• Explosive growth despite government opposition: London grew from 93,000 inhabitants (1563) to 860,000 (late eighteenth century), becoming Europe’s largest city despite repeated building prohibitions

  • Royal government feared the “monster whose unhealthy growth had to be limited at all costs,” issuing prohibitions in 1580, 1593, 1607, and 1625
  • Prohibitions encouraged clandestine construction in courtyards and division of existing houses, creating “labyrinths of lanes and alleys, houses with double, triple, even quadruple entrances and exits”
  • By 1732, London contained 5,099 streets, lanes and squares with 95,968 houses in a “network of poor brick in courtyards away from streets”

• River-centered urban structure: The Thames shaped London “like a half moon” with London Bridge as the sole crossing until Westminster Bridge (1750)

  • The Pool (port of London) downstream from London Bridge featured “forest of masts” (13,444 ships in 1798) with specialized quays for coal, fish, wine, and other goods
  • River pirates, night plunderers, watermen, lightermen, “mudlarks” and receivers created organized criminal networks exploiting “immense depredations on West India produce”
  • East London’s naval, artisan districts contrasted with westward expansion of wealthy areas seeking to escape “fumes, steams, and stinks of the whole Easterly Pyle”

• Social stratification and immigration: London attracted both wealth and desperate poverty, creating extreme social divisions within the expanding metropolis

  • Irish immigration from famished districts created a proletariat living “ten or twelve to one windowless room” accepting wages “well below the general rate” as dockers, carriers, brick workers
  • Jewish refugees from Bohemia (1744) and Poland (1772) faced “most ugly and widespread popular hostility,” working as dealers in old clothes and iron, often becoming “rogues, filchers, counterfeiters”
  • Werner Sombart calculated that only 100,000 people could live from trade profits (£700,000 equivalent to William III’s civil list), yet London supported 700,000+ through Crown employment, nobility settlement, and government bondholders

Urbanization, the sign of modern man

Large cities represent both the achievements and contradictions of early modern development, serving as measures of economic and social transformation while creating new forms of inequality.

• Cities as development indicators: Great cities created modern states and national markets, serving as “excellent yardstick of development in Europe and other continents”

  • Capital cities competed in modernization: first pavements, street lamps, steam pumps, water distribution systems, numbered houses appeared in London and Paris before the French Revolution
  • Urban growth reflected transition from rural ancien regime world to modern industrial society, though paradoxically “capital cities watched the coming Industrial Revolution” rather than leading it
  • Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and mill-towns launched the new age, not London; Paris briefly welcomed industry before displacement to northern coalfields, Alsace water-power, Lorraine iron

• Structural contradictions and costs: Cities represented “deep-seated disequilibrium, asymmetrical growth, and irrational and unproductive investment on a nation-wide scale”

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau criticized Paris as “apparent and illusory wealth; a lot of money and little effect,” arguing “France would be much more powerful if Paris were annihilated”
  • Cities were “what society, the economy and politics allow or oblige them to be” - parasitical because capital and surplus wealth poured into them “partly for want of anything better to do”
  • The “luxury and appetites of these enormous parasites” created national-scale resource transfers, but also generated the political, economic, and cultural innovations that enabled modern state formation and eventual industrial transformation