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Q&@
THE RISE OF CITIES & KINGDOMS
& THE IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
BROUGHT ABOUT NEW KINDS OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPECIALISATION?!
Densely populated cities now provided full-time employment not just for professional
shoe-makers & doctors, but also carpenters, priests, soldiers & lawyers! Villages that gained a reputation
for producing really good wine, olive oil or ceramics discovered that it was worth their while to specialize
nearly exclusively in that product & trade it with other settlements 4 all the other goods they needed!
This made a lot of sense? Climates & soils differ, so why drink mediocre wine from your backyard if
you can buy a smoother variety from a place whose soil & climate is much better suited to grape
vines? If the clay in your backyard makes stronger & prettier pots, then you can make an exchange!
Furthermore, full-time specialist vintners & potters, not to mention doctors & lawyers, can hone their expertise
to the benefit of àll! But SPECIALISATION created a problem - how do you manage the exchange of goods
between the specialists? An economy of favours & obligations doesn't work when large numbers of strangers try to cooperate...
It's one thing to provide free assistance to a sister or a NEIGHBOUR, a very different thing
to take care of foreigners who might never reciprocate the favour!
One can fall back on barter. But barter is effective only
when exchanging a limited range of
products. It cannot form
the basis for
a complex
economy.
Asih, man, 79 jaar
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