This text is adapted from Michael Hudson’s foreword to At the Origins of Politics by Giorgio Buccellati, and this excerpt was produced by Human Bridges. Archaeologist and scholar Giorgio Buccellati’s book At the Origins…
The oligarchic tradition of land-grabbing and tax dodging goes back centuries. Roman land tenure was based increasingly on the appropriation of conquered territory, which was declared public land, the ager publicus…
Why were Clean Slates so important to Bronze Age societies? From the third millennium in Mesopotamia, people were aware that debt pressures, if left to accumulate unchecked, would distort normal…
Not only were “modern” elements of enterprise present and even dominant already in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, but the institutional context was conducive to long-term growth. If a…
The changing context for enterprise through the centuries reminds us that business activities are not universal but fluid and alter according to society’s practical priorities and ethics. There are multiple…
The Roman concept of property is essentially creditor-oriented. As Rome’s power grew, practices quickly became predatory. Traditional societies usually had restrictions to prevent self-support land from being alienated outside of…
Although the Magna Carta typically is depicted as the birth of England’s fight to create democracy, the 13th-century struggle was to establish what would become the House of Lords, not…
Whether in the realms of trade or agriculture, the operative principle was that debtors should not lose their economic liberty by being held liable for “acts of God.” When interest-bearing…
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us