Eve is here. Despite much pretense, there is little in finance that is new, much less innovative. Paul Volcker still seems right when he called the ATM the only banking invention of his lifetime. Econned stated that nearly all the functions of modern finance were discovered in Ur in 1788 B.C., including venture capital, loan syndication and sales, secured loans, and derivatives. However, Banking Heaven, also known as Offshore, was not on that particular list. Hudson fills that gap by explaining the key elements of these hidden caches of money and naming their ancient analogues.
Author: Michael Hudson, American economist, professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and research fellow at the Levy Institute of Economics at Bard College. He is a former Wall Street analyst, political consultant, commentator, and journalist.You can read more about Hudson’s economic history on the observatory.produced by human bridge
Discussing the origins of urbanization may provide insight into the nature of contemporary social problems by highlighting the long historical dynamics at play. It may not be far-fetched to point out here that the modern world is particularly well known for anti-state organizations, which the US Federal Reserve has classified as the 11 Offshore Banking Centers. His five enclaves exist in the Caribbean: Panama, the Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao), Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the British West Indies (Cayman Islands). His three enclaves of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore were established to carry out trade with China. The remaining three are Liberia, Lebanon, and Bahrain at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The island was called Dilmun during the Bronze Age when the Sumerians used it for trade with the Indus Valley and the Iranian coast.
Nothing looks more modern than these offshore banks and tax avoidance centers. They are the brainchild of lawyers and accountants in the 1960s who sought to weave loopholes into the fabric of society, providing a curtain of secrecy (“privacy”) for avoiding or evading taxes, and The purpose of the project was to function as a haven for the earned income. Facilitate lawful commerce.
Modern nation-states pass laws and impose taxes, but these enclaves help individuals avoid such regulations. And while nation-states have militaries, these centers are the furthest from military powers. These are antibodies to the state, but rather than looking at classical city-states such as Athens or Rome, looking at these modern enclaves gives us insight into the gatherings and gatherings of the Ice Age, Neolithic, and even Bronze Age. We might learn more about the place.
Timeless features of the entrepot
- they lack political autonomy
Modern offshore banking centers and free trade zones are not politically independent, but rather small former colonies, such as Caribbean islands or Chinese trading hubs. Grand Cayman was a dependent territory of Jamaica until 1959, when it chose to return to its former status as a British Royal Colony in order to benefit from the Empire’s commercial preferences. Liberia and Panama are vassal states of the United States and don’t even have their own currency systems (both use the US dollar). Hong Kong did not acquire ownership of its own land until her British lease expired in 1997. Panama did not gain control of the canal until 1999.
In summary, while political theorists define the primary characteristic of a modern state (and by implication its capital) as the ability to make and enforce laws, offshore banking centers have does not have In some ways, such enclaves are similar to Biblical cities of refuge, in the sense of sanctuary from tax and legal authorities. If not a sanctuary for lawbreakers, then at least a hiding place for their bank accounts and businesses.
- Occupies a convenient point of commercial interface between regions
Entrepots are usually located at the navel of important transportation points such as islands or the Isthmus of Panama. They are politically, if not physically, separated from the surrounding political entities as free ports. These are often centers for travel and tourism (‘business meetings’) and gambling. In ancient times, these were usually the centers of sacred festivals and games, such as those held in Delphi, Nemia, the Isthmus of Corinth, or Olympia (it is from there that the modern Olympic Games began on a sacred background).
- they enjoy divine (or legal) protection against attack
Delphi and Olympos (like Çatalhöyük) were located inland, but in the heart of the local region. They served as religious and cultural centers, and their festivals and games were easily accessible to the entire Greek population. Even visitors who were citizens of mutually belligerent city-states enjoyed sanctuary.Today’s enclaves no longer claim sacred status, with the exception of the Vatican and its religious institutes, which, of course, drive money laundering functions.1. Their commercial focus was separated from the religious environment associated with international trade throughout medieval Europe, where the Great Exhibitions were held. And in fact, their appeal is particularly to wealthy people who avoid their home countries’ tax and criminal laws.
- they are militarily secure
Today’s enclaves rarely have their own militaries, but they are militarily secure. Thanks to their unique apolitical status, in fact, neighboring countries have little incentive to attack them, as they are ultimately dependent on great powers, using them as business routes, even arms deals, money laundering. There is no reason to use them even for government transactions such as rings, and related activities. It is not considered appropriate behavior within the household. The resulting commerce flourishes without regulation or taxes, has no cost of supporting a standing army, and takes place in a militarily secure environment, making it possible to collect taxes for this purpose or reduce the nation’s war debt. Less need to monetize.
- This is a politically neutral site
Creating such enclaves has long been an objective of commercial capital. Unless we do what real governments do, which is regulate the economy, we end up favoring the politically weakest parts of the world. The search for “neutral territory” was already present in the Chalcolithic period, thousands of years before the development of private enterprise as we know it. As a result of this drive, Neolithic cities such as Çatalhöyük, Mesopotamian temple cities such as Nippur, island strongholds such as Dilmun, the Egyptian delta region, Ischia/Piteksai, and the Biblical cities of refuge, are today They will share important commonalities with cities: Offshore banking centers: Rather than being centers of local governance, legal or military power, they were politically neutral bases established outside the jurisdiction of local governments.
- They create forums for rituals of social cohesion
Whether these urban locations were sacred commercial hubs or androgynous centers, they provided ceremonial spaces of social cohesion to enhance commerce. These rituals included the exchange of goods and women (intergamy), that is, commerce and intercourse in the archaic sexual sense, and commodity exchange in the more modern sense.
I quoted above about the archaic practice of conducting trade through island entrances. The sacred island of Dilmun/Bahrain in the Persian Gulf represents the longest-running example of such an enclave in history. It served as a transit point linking Sumer and Babylonia (the “merchants of Dilmun” are prominently mentioned in its records) and the Indus Valley Civilization and the intervening Iranian coast. Its status as a sacred and commercial center was facilitated by the fact that its waters were a source of pearls, prized as sacred symbols of the moon (round, pale, and associated with deep water). It’s possible. It also seems to have served as a high-status burial site for wealthy individuals, or at least parts of their bodies.Ramberg Karlovsky2 The Sumerians participated in the island’s sanctity piecemeal, so they are reported to have more fingers and other limbs than complete skeletons (although some commentators argue that this was simply a matter of centuries). (I believe it may have been the result of grave robbing)3). In any case, these social and commercial virtues made Dilmun one of the most expensive places in Bronze Age real estate, similar to modern-day Bahrain.
- promotes commercial development
The sacred status of such temples, similar to the sacred status that temples achieved when they became major economic and textile production centers, allows for commercial development in a way that does not exploit Bronze Age sensibilities. promoted. Bronze Age institutions created the economic conditions and organization for large-scale enterprises within traditional social values and order, while providing leeway to avoid stifling commercial development through excessive central control.This may be part of the reason why the trade took place outside city gate. The philosophy was to create a “mixed economy” in which the institutional and private sectors each had appropriate roles.
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1. David A. Yallop, In the Name of God: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I, 1984, pp. 92-94.↩
2. CC Lamberg-Karlovsky, “Dilmun: Gateway to Immortality,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, January 1982, 41(1), pp. 45-50.↩
3. PRS Mouly, “Where did they bury the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur?” Iraq, 46, 1984, pp. 1-18.↩
