[ExI] Money and Human Nature (was Re: Capitalism, anti capitalism, emotional arousal)

[Stefano Vaj]

On 14 November 2011 17:04, Tara Maya <tara at taramayastales.com> wrote:

> Actually, what distinguished medieval European (and Japanese) feudalism
> was that lords had a great deal of stability of inheritance and property
> rights (and so did "free men") compared to "absolute monarchies." The
> situation was quite different in the Middle East, for instance, where the
> ruler could and did replace "nobles", including appoint eunuch slaves to
> the positions of greatest power. Eunuchs and slaves were the extreme
> example of the perfect loyal drones. They had no lineage to protect, so
> they wouldn't fight for their own land rights, and since they owed their
> power directly to the calif or sultan, they protected him to protect
> themselves. This lack of secure lordly property rights, combined with
> polygyny (and no primogeniture) made Middle East politics much volatile
> than European politics. Essentially, there was a civil war every time the
> government changed from one king to the next.
>

Interesting issues. As to Europe, I would say that there was a curve: the
counts (comites regis) were born as the king's fellows, then became
strictly hereditary - even though kings never waives their rights to create
new ones - and ended up being easily marginalised, if not removed, by
absolute monarchs and its bourgeois or lower-nobility bureaucrats. The
Middle East had no real concept of permanent élites, but at the same time
the Ottoman empire managed to remain the most powerful political entity
until the beginning of the XVIII century...

By the way, the complaint that the greedy, money-grubbing rich and the
> conniving, scheming money-lenders have too much influence is not at all
> new, and long antedated the formal practice of capitalism.


Yes. Then the "conniving, scheming money-lenders" won that battle, so the
complaint was all but extinguished unless in times of very acute crises. :-)

OTOH, it is stupid to blame banks for doing what they are created to do
under the rules under which they actually operate. Same as blaming rabbits
for eating grass, or foxes for eating rabbits. Moralistic approaches seldom
solve political approaches...

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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