undefined | Better HN

0 pointseinrealist1y ago0 comments

And those small kingdoms did not care about oil, minerals back then - things that might not exist in your vicinity, but are required to run a modern economy today.

This entire concept of city-states exists on a premise of peaceful coexistence and cooperation. Given our history, this is pure fiction. (And then these people shit on Communism.)

0 comments

fodkodrasz1y ago

Of course they did care about minerals. They cared about salt, gold, tin, copper, iron. Also about navigable seaports, sea passages, fertile land, forests, and also workforce. For these resources wars were waged all the time in the Middle ages.

Oil was not as valuable as nowadays, but it was a priced export used as lighting fuel, weapon component for Greek fire, and also as a drug for some health conditions since ~400 BC, and more so later. It was not the central fuel for the economy, but it was considered a valuable resource, though not one for which a war would be started probably.

einrealistOP1y ago

You are right. I oversimplified my statement to make the point that the resource requirements of modern economies are more complex. So conflicts happened over less complex resource requirements back then. Also resources are not just the source materials, but anything within a supply chain, including intermediate products.

AstralStorm1y ago

This is why the ultra rich now engage in prediction as to which resources will become critical, then try to monopolize that.

dumbledoren1y ago

> This entire concept of city-states exists on a premise of peaceful coexistence and cooperation

F*ck no. From early Sumerian cities to Greek city-states, they were at each others' throats regularly. You can speak of peaceful cooperation maybe in certain stages of Ancient Egypt, and very early Anatolian settlements like Catalhuyuk.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse