this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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The Renaissance in Italy was paid for by the emerging banking industry, the Medici family is a good example of what happened. If you want large public works, and people like Leonardo da Vinci, then you also get families like the Medici. You can't separate the two. So not just USA-centric.
"sweat of the subsistence farmer or the feudal peasant/slave was what built the foundations of most countries", it was also access to different resources. Mining for silver in some areas, sheep and wool production in others, forestry in others ... already by the 13th century the Hanseatic League had a large trade network in most of Europe (from the Mediterranean in N. Italy through Germany into the sea and along the coasts of the North sea and the Baltic sea to Norway Sweden Finland and Russia.
Ok sorry for the snide in that other comment. I think we’re talking slightly past one another. A society without banking or finance is a primitive one, but a society nonetheless. Now, all modern countries are advanced societies, but only current and former colonies started out that way.
I suppose the question comes down to whether the meme is talking about rebuilding complex society, or just society in general. You seem to be talking of the former, while I speak of the latter. I also think the meme was referring to the latter.
I’ll end by saying that while historical precedent is a very solid basis for how societies operate, I think it lacks imagination. Who knows what other ways there could be to build complex societies? I think that this is a powerful part of why people are fascinated with post-apocalyptic stories.
Societies did exist before the renaissance, and were a prerequisite for it. Societies existed before the Hanseatic league could conduct trade between them.