Archaeologica.org

Digit wrote:

Just like God, apparently!

Arch ain't gonna like that!

I know.

The Americans did it in the Great Plains, and the Brits, again, in the interior of Canada.
Establish “Forts” of “Castles” in the wilderness as “trading posts.”
Get the natives used to trading easy for them to get stuff for convenience items like iron knives and pans.
After a generation, they have forgotten what it was like to get by without the stuff they get from the trading.
Now they are dependant on your being there.

Damn clever strategy, what!

After a generation, they have forgotten what it was like to get by without the stuff they get from the trading.

Sounds like us with the cheap junk made in China and sold in Wal-Mart. You don't think they are copying the strategy, do you?

Now you're making me nervous Min!

That's my function in life.

A very interesting parallel.
Make it economically unreasonable to have any local manufacturing ability.
A nation of bankers and traders.
Then stop the trading and money transferring?
Why are the Chineese so interested in the Panama Canal?
Preferred Nation Status on toll rates?
The Brit Empire did start to fade when they let the manufacturing be done offshore.
That was when the US started to become the big boy on the block. They had the manufacturing muscle.

There a quotation, usually attributed to Lenin which goes something like:

"When it comes times to hang the capitalists they will be bidding for the contract on the rope."

My only comfort is that our system outlasted his.

"When it comes times to hang the capitalists they will be bidding for the contract on the rope."

'Gotta make a Shekel or two-ooh! Gotta make a Shekel or two!'