Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "Nutty Productions"
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I read in the book "The Economic Life of the Ancient World" by Jean-Philippe Lévy, and I concluded that the economy of the Ptolemian Egypt must have been the most dystopian economic system in history. And that doesn't say little with all the crappy regimes that have existed throughout history. And I happen to know a lot about economic history as a nerd I am into the subject.
Its an interested topic for exploration, but I don't know any books written about the economy of the Ptolemian Egypt specifically.
To me is Ptolemian Egypt a blueprint of how a rich ruling class opress the rest of society and steal all wealth from everyone else only to enrich themselves. They raise taxes on the poor and on everything they consume. They own all property in the country and charge fees for their use, so there is really no incentive for any person to do any work at all so the economy of the society goes into total stagnation.
And to make matters even worse, was the ruling class not even Egyptians, but Macedonian Greeks. So no solidarity at all existed between the ruling class and the people, as they did not even feel any pity for them or cared the slighted about their fellow Egyptian subjects, as the rulers were not Egyptians themselves and therefore did not even care a bit over the people who lived in the country.
This was just a simple parasitic plundering economy. Egypt had a huge economic potential. It was the breadbasket of Rome. It was the mightiest and richest country in the mediaterranean sea during the middle ages. And ancient Egypt was one of the most advanced and early human civilizations in antiquity.
So to me its clear that this country had a huge economic potential. But the Ptolemian rulers did manage to let it all go to waste.
To me they were the proto-neoliberals. They can be said to be a blueprint for what happens when a selfish powerful rich ruling class takes over the state machinery in a country and start using it to steal money from the poor so the rich can make themselves even richer that way.
It reminds me how the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth destroyed itself from within, or how Swedens time as a great power ended with its corrupt aristocracy taking power during its "age of liberty". And it also reminds me of Yeltsins oligarchs that took over Russia, and Carlos Menems corrupt regime that transformed Argentina from one of the richest countries of the planet into a 3rd world country.
The Ptolemaian Egypt is a historical warning. Just like George Orwells book 1984.
This is a dystopian, dysfunctional and extremely crappy economy and society. And a lesson in how to not do things.
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@marlonalexis3080 It was an empire built on royal marriages between Aragon and Castile, and later on did they inherit Burgundy, and gained Portugal through royal marriage and became allied with the Habsburg Austrians. So it was not an empire mainly built on economic and military superiority. But rather more on skillful medieval style diplomacy with royal marriages.
The country never built a succesful economic model. Indeed, as a medieval country it had much knights and this warrior class had contempt for hard work. They rather wanted to live off resource extraction instead.. using slaves on plantations and working people to death in silver mines.
And then was a few tonnes of silver shipped to China each year, or used for trading spices and other goods in India, and the indian ocean and pacific. This economic model worked well to make Spain rich for some time. But later on would the silver mines not produce as much silver as before... and the global demand for Spanish exports sunk as markets became saturated with all the big flows of gold and silver.
And the overextended Spanish empire constantly failed to balance its expenses with incomes and went bankrupt after fighting Dutch, Turks, English, Swedes, Germans, Italians, Portugease, French, Native americans, north african berbers and so on.
So even if Spain managed to construct Europes first standing army, with superior capabilities on the battlefield... would other countries soon learn to build better armies themselves. And as the Spanish empire started to fall apart, did money become scarce and it was no longer possible for Spain to maintain troop quality, which only made Spains problems worse. Now it no longer was just the Dutch that wanted independence from Spain, but also Italy and Portugal. And the local rulers in America wanted more power for themselves and their Spanish motherlands expense.
And the list of foreign enemies of Spain was long, and it was mostly Spains own arrogance, hubris and extreme religious intolerance that was at fault for those many wars. Spain should have choosen diplomatic solutions to further its interests than trying to use its powerful military as a solution to every problem. When it did that, then did the enemies soon to became too many to handle.
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