https://twitter.com/mr_james_c/status/1764223381337931788

  • save_vs_death [they/them]
    ·
    4 months ago

    To give a short answer, that would require the establishment of a global connected market (think the wars started by the british to open up "trade ports" in foreign countries). Lacking globalised market, what you have, essentially, is a series of local markets that can communicate with each other only through passing traders, and, as such, one can do arbitrage infinitely among these markets, as such the real competitive advantage was securing monopoly privileges over said trade routes, which is how trade worked for the most part.

    For the sake of the argument, if a banking guild would seek debt to develop, it would then do so over distinctly feudal lines, such as securing monopoly privileges, hiring mercenaries to literally bully competitors out of the market, so on. There are no market imperatives to start the capitalist quartet of:

    • competitive production
    • profit maximization
    • reinvestment of surpluses
    • need to improve labour-productivity

    The reason as to why any of these is a bad idea is left as an exercise for the reader, but, for example, what's the point of improving labour-productivity if the king just guaranteed me as the only chartered company in any given sector.

    • combat_brandonism [they/them]
      ·
      4 months ago

      for example, what's the point of improving labour-productivity if the king just guaranteed me as the only chartered company in any given sector

      great example as like the first thing herbert writes about arrakis is how inefficiently the harkonnens harvested spice