Send us a text Forget the tidy tale of Athens inventing everything. We follow the harder, richer path: who counted as a citizen, who powered the mines and fleets, and how alphabets, temples, and trade shaped a world that learned to finance risk before it learned to praise democracy. We trace the consonants of Phoenicia becoming Greek vowels, the spread of colonies from Sicily to Anatolia, and the Etruscan bridge that carried scripts to Rome. Along the way, temples act like strongrooms and len...
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Send us a text Forget the tidy tale of Athens inventing everything. We follow the harder, richer path: who counted as a citizen, who powered the mines and fleets, and how alphabets, temples, and trade shaped a world that learned to finance risk before it learned to praise democracy. We trace the consonants of Phoenicia becoming Greek vowels, the spread of colonies from Sicily to Anatolia, and the Etruscan bridge that carried scripts to Rome. Along the way, temples act like strongrooms and len...
Episode 43. What the Han Dynasty teaches us about monopolies, money, and the uneasy balance between state power and private enterprise
History of Money, Banking, and Trade
39 minutes
1 month ago
Episode 43. What the Han Dynasty teaches us about monopolies, money, and the uneasy balance between state power and private enterprise
Send us a text Wealth surges, currency crises, and monopolies on life’s essentials—Han China’s economic story feels startlingly current. We dig into the early Western Han’s laissez-faire push that unleashed private enterprise and inequality, then follow Emperor Wu’s decisive swing to state control: salt, iron, and liquor monopolies; centralized minting; and grain “ever-normal” granaries that smoothed prices to prevent famine. The gains were real—stronger coffers, military capacity, and nation...
History of Money, Banking, and Trade
Send us a text Forget the tidy tale of Athens inventing everything. We follow the harder, richer path: who counted as a citizen, who powered the mines and fleets, and how alphabets, temples, and trade shaped a world that learned to finance risk before it learned to praise democracy. We trace the consonants of Phoenicia becoming Greek vowels, the spread of colonies from Sicily to Anatolia, and the Etruscan bridge that carried scripts to Rome. Along the way, temples act like strongrooms and len...
