Same here - I suppose this article did what it was supposed to do - give a short primer introducing the topic and if you want to see how they computed this look at the paper!
It's truly incredible how far Russia's talking points have gone in conservative circles. Anything more than complete capitulation to Russian invasion is framed as crazed aggression against Russia, as if they didn't send their conquering army out of their borders and couldn't withdraw their army back into their borders and be secure in those borders at any point.
>"They frame anything other than complete capitulation to Russian invasion as crazed aggression against Russia..."
This has been common among many groups for a long time; I recall the GWB administration proposing a missile interceptor system based in Eastern Europe in the mid-oughts, and Democratic Party members in congress opposed it as 'provocative'. The (Liberal) Canadian government of the time opposed that as well as the Alaska based 'shield' as being 'aggressive'.
Just like Iran has been aggressively being encircled by our helpless inmocent bases for decades? Can't believe people are still swallowing this imperial propaganda. A tale as old as time and people still refuse to learn from it.
No, those two things are not equivalent. Posture and capabilities are open to interpretation in a way that armies crossing a border and bombing your cities simply isn't.
Shipping weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to one side in an active conflict is much more 'provocative' than building a facility located hundreds or thousands of kilometers from the border of a potential adversary.
Most things which differ are not equivalent; pointing that out isn't helpful.
It would be indeed a "misstep" had I not reacted to an open call for the genocide of the Russian people. (Allowed by the way quite liberally on your "social networks" and here.)
As for "false equivalence", you are not a Russian, so it is really not for you to speak.
"Well, the nazis tried it with the Jews, now you are trying this with Russians."
This is what you wrote. You think the guy you've answered to is closer to doing Nazi things to the Russians by making this joke, than the Russians are to doing Nazi things to the Ukrainians by actually murdering them in the hundred thousands using bombs, missiles, guns, forced deportation and forced assimilation? You Gremlins really cannot take a joke. That's probably why you don't like to see a comedian as head of a sovereign state.
I'll just leave this here: I think the destruction of Carthage was a great catastrophe. Both for the world from a humanitarian perspective and for Rome which squandered a lot of economic generativity.
If Rome had stayed a local power, could a divided Mediterranean have been even more dynamic than a unified empire? Perhaps rivalry between regional powers would have inspired greater human achievement. There certainly would have been wars, but not necessarily more than those the Roman Empire actually fought.
As his income grew, Cato also became a regular investor in commercial lending. Although a law from 218 BC banned senators from engaging directly in commercial shipping, Cato formed partnerships of fifty investors that backed the commercial operations of fifty ships. He fronted all of the initial capital and then lent money to investors that they could each use to buy a share in the enterprise. Cato himself entrusted one share to a freed slave who acted as his agent. He then profited from the trading activities as well as the interest on these loans, while following the letter of the law and limiting his direct exposure in case the cargo was lost.
No, based on the professions named within the inscriptions. If a province has relatively many professions that are rare for the WRE, then it's considered more complex. See the paper for the actual estimates, the map in the article does not show the complexity estimation
They really do a lot to correct for bias, but is it enough?
I would suspect that a prosperous and thereby complex economy also has more resource to discover or document inscriptions. While they talk about researcher bias, they do not really mitigate this.
And yes, I searched the article and the extensive additional material.
I’d argue that a complex economy in a failing society is actually a sign of weakness. Lots of nobles and the likes wanting their cut of a pie that doesn’t really exist anymore. So all of that complexity is not really backed up by the reality and you just have a bubble. I can imagine all kinds of roles and professions that just exist to endow people. This also happens a lot in modern society.
I know this wasn’t actually your point but I just wanted to add.
Guns Germs and Steel is a great book that explores geographic determinism.
I am trying to find links but can't right now. There are many cross cultural studies they have found the effects of social class systems and family economic advantages persist over centuries. A millennia isn't unbelievable to me.
I imagine it's a mix of both with strong geographic determinism tilting the scales for certain regions.
It is 35 metres high now, 20,000 or so m^2, after 1500 years, and composed of ancient pottery fragments (the trade went sharply down after the 5th century A.D.)
Caesar reports of a wall more than 20 km long, several meters high, with a canal in front of it, constructed by a legion or two, I don't remember now exactly, in two weeks time. Maybe an exaggeration, but..
And the real question for me, is how they managed to do the logistics, with just the Roman numbers.. So the economical complexity should not be such a surprise, I suppose.
>honored tradition of ignoring the fact that women exist and do stuff
Yes, they raised children.
As someone raising children, and having been a child myself, the erasure of children from the historical record by academics is far more egregious than ignoring what a fraction of women did.
What does this have to do with economic complexity? Could you elaborate? You mean like child labor? What's the fraction, how small is it? I don't get it. "As a former child" is hilarious though
If this is your vibe, Erdkamp’s The Grain Market in the Roman Empire is worth a read.
It’s easy to project modern markets onto ancient empires. But proper capital market are just a break from ancient ways of thinking in ways that are surprising.
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[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 147 ms ] thread"As a third and final action point, I am of the opinion that Carthage must be destroyed."
This has been common among many groups for a long time; I recall the GWB administration proposing a missile interceptor system based in Eastern Europe in the mid-oughts, and Democratic Party members in congress opposed it as 'provocative'. The (Liberal) Canadian government of the time opposed that as well as the Alaska based 'shield' as being 'aggressive'.
Most things which differ are not equivalent; pointing that out isn't helpful.
I cannot but wish you the same end as that of your predecessors.
As for "false equivalence", you are not a Russian, so it is really not for you to speak.
This is what you wrote. You think the guy you've answered to is closer to doing Nazi things to the Russians by making this joke, than the Russians are to doing Nazi things to the Ukrainians by actually murdering them in the hundred thousands using bombs, missiles, guns, forced deportation and forced assimilation? You Gremlins really cannot take a joke. That's probably why you don't like to see a comedian as head of a sovereign state.
As his income grew, Cato also became a regular investor in commercial lending. Although a law from 218 BC banned senators from engaging directly in commercial shipping, Cato formed partnerships of fifty investors that backed the commercial operations of fifty ships. He fronted all of the initial capital and then lent money to investors that they could each use to buy a share in the enterprise. Cato himself entrusted one share to a freed slave who acted as his agent. He then profited from the trading activities as well as the interest on these loans, while following the letter of the law and limiting his direct exposure in case the cargo was lost.
I would suspect that a prosperous and thereby complex economy also has more resource to discover or document inscriptions. While they talk about researcher bias, they do not really mitigate this.
And yes, I searched the article and the extensive additional material.
Still a valuable contribution.
I know this wasn’t actually your point but I just wanted to add.
https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/
I am trying to find links but can't right now. There are many cross cultural studies they have found the effects of social class systems and family economic advantages persist over centuries. A millennia isn't unbelievable to me.
I imagine it's a mix of both with strong geographic determinism tilting the scales for certain regions.
Another commenter mentioned the book under the comment you responded to.
It is 35 metres high now, 20,000 or so m^2, after 1500 years, and composed of ancient pottery fragments (the trade went sharply down after the 5th century A.D.)
Caesar reports of a wall more than 20 km long, several meters high, with a canal in front of it, constructed by a legion or two, I don't remember now exactly, in two weeks time. Maybe an exaggeration, but..
And the real question for me, is how they managed to do the logistics, with just the Roman numbers.. So the economical complexity should not be such a surprise, I suppose.
Yes, they raised children.
As someone raising children, and having been a child myself, the erasure of children from the historical record by academics is far more egregious than ignoring what a fraction of women did.
It’s easy to project modern markets onto ancient empires. But proper capital market are just a break from ancient ways of thinking in ways that are surprising.