
A window into ancient economics - cossatot
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/the-vcs-of-bc.html?smid=tw-share
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Animats
What's especially interesting is the mention of "joint-stock companies".
There's a little more detail on that here: [1] It's not clear whether these
were ongoing entities or shares in a venture.

"Venture" in this sense comes from shipping, where a number of people would
put in money to buy shares in a single ship voyage. When (and if) the ship
came back, the profits were divided in proportion to the investment. (This is
the source of the phrase "waiting for (their) ship to come in".)

But it's not a corporation. It's not a permanent organization. This is
significant. The Roman Empire, even though it had a legal system and a stable
government for several centuries, never developed the concept of the
corporation, or of a common carrier. They had rich individuals as sole owners,
and family businesses, but not larger multi-owner organizations. Something
like a multi-city merchant company was out of reach. Even a commercial
delivery service comparable to Wells Fargo (the stagecoach operation) was
never developed.

Did Kanesh get past that hump and figure out how to set up a big business?

[1]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=vYMmrenUywQC&pg=PA131&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=vYMmrenUywQC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=Kanesh+joint+stock+companies&source=bl&ots=XJRJv1hDW1&sig=VeMkca71Cf_wOYzG9NNn0rXWMIs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ6AEwA2oVChMI3tePxNLNxwIVSTeICh3NbA7C#v=onepage&q=Kanesh%20joint%20stock%20companies&f=false)

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jbuzbee
Fascinating article showing that even in ancient times, and despite taxes,
subsidies, trade-agreements, etc. trade between parties has always followed
its own natural rate. So as much as politicians and various special-interest
groups want and claim to "control" imports and exports, history shows it's
futile.

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erispoe
It's much more akin to convergent evolution than any "natural state" of
markets. People design comparable instruments to solve comparable problems. It
does not mean there is no design. Just like dolphins and sharks having evolved
fins separately does not mean that there is a "natural law of fins", it means
fins are pretty good at solving the problem they solve.

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jbuzbee
Interesting way to look at it!

