Making profits and the foibles of human nature don’t seem to have any
trouble co-existing, and they have done so for a long time.
I came across this somewhat incidental observation in a book on the
history of clocks and timekeeping:
“This maritime struggle was linked to commercial rivalry. For both
countries the eighteenth century was a period of rapid growth of trade and
competition in what were known as colonial wares: sugar, coffee, tea,
tobacco—what I like to call Europe’s ‘big fix.’ “
The author, David Landes, was referring to the long-running naval
policy and tactical conflicts between England and France.
The thing that struck me is: all four of those “colonial wares” are
addictive commodities. There wasn’t any difficulty about selling the stuff. The
rivalry was all about who would transport it from the colonies to Europe, and
who would cash in when it was finally sold to the end users.
Eighteenth century mercantilism had many dimensions, and this was one
of them.
Source:
David Landes, Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern
World (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983),
159.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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