Trade matters. “Now imagine that trade starts growing on a river. Naturally, you’re going to have bandits trying to steal your goods. This disrupts trade and makes everybody poorer. So the king pushes to enforce peace in their part of… Read More »Pax Mercatus
Travel times matter. “Levant was closer to Mesopotamia (mostly present-day Iraq) and Anatolia (mostly present-day Turkey) so Egypt could not hold that territory for long after empires emerged there. For example, the Achaemenid Empire (Persia) emerged close to Mesopotamia, conquered… Read More »How Transportation Technologies Shaped Empires
Or milking spiders. Yuck.
Your building would be considered a skyscraper a few decades ago. “Chicago’s Home Insurance Building is considered the first skyscraper in the world, completed in 1885 with elevators to reach its 12 floors. It was not the first building to… Read More »How Transportation Technologies Shape Cities
Some patterns emerge. “once sailing technologies developed, the sea had something special that none of the other lines had: It allowed to easily trade not just with cities connected to your roads or rivers, but with any city on the… Read More »Why Some Cities Thrive
Is it all inevitable? “Social complexity and government also appeared in other ways. For example, through trade. When pirates and marauders disrupted trade, they reduced wealth. Traders and local governments then organized to eliminate the threats. Romans expanded into the… Read More »History’s Network Effects
Yes. But should not be the only language left. “Researchers found that increasing the linguistic similarity between two languages by 10% increased their trade by 5%. It’s not the only benefit. Speaking a language makes you more likely to work… Read More »Should Everybody Learn English?
Just sad.
They are not only for budgeting. “When something is in hypergrowth, it’s growing faster than it’s ever been. This is when healthcare systems collapse during a pandemic, or when hypergrowth companies can’t cope with all the ways they’re breaking at… Read More »S Curves
And some math.