Comments by "" (@TheHuxleyAgnostic) on "VIVEK RAWASWAMY DEBATES COMMUNISTS OUTSIDE OF THE DNC" video.
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@Ghastlyteaparty Cows (fehu) were their currency. Whether you have a coin as a placeholder between selling a cow and buying a donkey, or you straight up trade a cow for a donkey, is of little relevance. They both still indicate an economy based on trading private property. It developed through a bunch of private property claimants (capital: wealth producing wealth), with no authority above them (anarcho), using their own private armies to settle land disputes. If the winner subjugated the other, or installed someone to rule over the new land under them, then a hierarchy began forming. Much like the cattle barons of the Western Territories, with little to no authority above them. They hired their own private armies of cowboys, and started throwing their weight around. They were only stopped by the federal government influencing more control over the region, removing the anarcho element.
Taxes have been around since ancient Egypt. But, until governments started becoming governments of the people, the "taxes" were really just direct payments to a private land owner, not to a non person government entity. The top of the hierarchy was a private landlord, and everyone who lived on his property, was paying rent in some form or another. No peasant could do whatever they wanted, if what they wanted was to live on a Lord's land for free.
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@kpcook305 Private ownership over the means of production. The workers are left with barely enough to live on, while the owner gets all the surplus, from which they personally profit to fund their lavish lifestyle. A hierarchy of power, with the workers on the bottom. Etc.
A large privately owned company is even modeled the same way. It has an owner (monarch), who owns all the company's property and everything it produces. The company can be inherited. The owner has their upper management (nobles) and lower management (sheriffs, rent/tax collectors, etc.), who all benefit from the surplus goods produced by the workers. The actual workers get paid as little as possible (whether they're paid in money or goods is irrelevant). An absolute monarchy goes even further, like the more exploitative businesses that ran their own company towns. So, they also owned, and made profits from, the property the workers lived on, and made profits from the shops the workers shopped at.
The main difference is that most businesses have an authority above them, which wouldn't be the case in an anarcho environment. The company owners could then claim ownership of whatever they wanted, and use their profits to fund private armies to enforce those claims, and enforce whatever rules (laws) they want for their private property.
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@Ghastlyteaparty I think you are very much underestimating just how organized they were. Maybe look into things like the Domesday Book, pipe rolls, close rolls, patent rolls, Inquisitions post mortem, etc. Like the owner of a large private company, a monarch did delegate. They had their upper management (nobles) who, in turn, had their own lower management (sheriffs, tax collectors, game wardens, etc.). The monarch kept very very close track of who was running their lands for them, the upper management. Each level of the hierarchy only had to keep track of the level just below them, so the monarch didn't have to keep track of the peasantry. Each level would keep track of the level below, and it would be the lowest level of local Lord, or their henchmen, who would know all the peasants under their charge.
The nobles basically leased the land, from the monarch, for X amount per year. They, in turn, assigned the lower management to extract that amount from the peasantry, plus whatever profits they wanted for themselves. Serfs were not living some lovely communal life, with all kinds of time off. They were basically indentured servants, tied to the land, and each had their own individual annual debts to pay. The ownership hierarchy made profits from the labor of the masses. They made profits off of sales by the much smaller merchant class in their lands. They made profits off of people traveling through their lands (tolls). Seeing as they were also the justice system, they also made profits from fining people. The ownership hierarchy had their hands in everything, and the working masses owned nothing.
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