Империи древних — грубое орудие истории

Вестник Московского университета. Серия 6: Экономика. 2024. Т. 59. № 6. С. 125–160.

Grigoryev L. M.

In the world of different tribes, languages and slightly cultivated landscapes, empires through crude violence extended rent concentration scale, with the focus on infrastructure (roads, dumbs, canals), fortifications, cult centers and palaces. Investment concentration of a leading nation was achieved through robbery of other nations or through levying taxes on the periphery of the empire. Empires speeded up the information exchange, including innovations, and strengthened the role of lingua franca. In principle, they effected the initial organization of transport, manufacturing and information space. Between the wars and territorial conquest, they created the conditions for development within the empires and their trade with surrounding countries. Critical view of empires as an “aggressive evil” lessened the attention to their economic aspects, while their military-political role became central both in history and consciousness creating a certain cultural code. The impact of ancient empires (KPI) for further development of mankind (science and art, in particular) depended at large on governance quality, length of their existence and character of its termination (catastrophe or adaptation). Some technological and cultural developments were resulted from management and the degree of survival after collapses of empires. We distinguish the agricultural and nomadic empires, trying to cover the life cycle of empires between XIII Century BC and 5 A.D. (fall of Rome), before Christianity and Islam came as a decisive factor. Modern elites strive to select a historic span of the past as an element of historic code for their current political aspirations.

Keywords: development, развитие, империя, торговля, Адам Смит, trade, Евразия, Eurasia, empire, Adam Smith