tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post1684448591087674835..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Wealth And Power: Does One Necessarily Lead To The Other?: The Curious Case Of FlandersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-70574035508232422382016-08-21T23:11:36.904-04:002016-08-21T23:11:36.904-04:00The same physical geography that made Flanders ric...The same physical geography that made Flanders rich ensured that it was ruled by others rather than ruling others. It is militarily indefensible.<br /><br />Compare with other great traders - Venice, or Constantinople, or island Britain. They had the location to get rich but also the natural fortification to keep those riches to themselves.derrida deriderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01188777386180390172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-72703385955483882712016-08-07T11:56:14.063-04:002016-08-07T11:56:14.063-04:00Flanders, Belgium, Northern France, and Northern G...Flanders, Belgium, Northern France, and Northern Germany appear to be perpetual battlegrounds. Viking invasions, the Teutoberg Forest disaster, the battle of the Somme, etc.<br /><br />Power doesn't reside on battlegrounds, but it does find its ultimate expression there.<br /><br />"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."<br /> George OrwellMyrtle Blackwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07427043367624101075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-31057066883405404062016-08-03T21:55:48.352-04:002016-08-03T21:55:48.352-04:00Maybe some interesting parallels to Scotland, Edin...Maybe some interesting parallels to Scotland, Edinburgh at one point (16th C?) was the most densely populated city in Europe and the Scots pioneered urban intellectual culture and mass higher education (Scotland at one point provided the majority of university trained physicians in the UK).Wallflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03852136998154262919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-88318955211194541562016-08-01T19:47:32.877-04:002016-08-01T19:47:32.877-04:00When the Pepinids ruled, neither Germany nor Fland...When the Pepinids ruled, neither Germany nor Flanders nor France nor Belgium existed. So Aachen was not over the border (as draining the fens had not gone far at that point, the best areas were a bit further east in any case). And as well as Aachen, Tournai and Tertry were major Carolingian centres in what was then Austrasia.<br /><br />The Burgundian Valois ruled mostly from Ghent. Indeed, the name "Burgundy" transferred to the low countries ("all the meads of waterish Burgundy..").<br /><br />The protestant revolt against Phillip II started in Flanders, not the north. It ended up holding only the northern provinces as they were more defensible.<br /><br />Interestingly, the same point can be made about China. From around 450, the richest part of China has been the Yangtze delta, but the key to power has always been holding the north. One clue is the pattern of land-holding - the state tried hard to keep the north a land of free peasant farmers, as they provided the military power needed to fend off steppe tribes. The south was a land of tenants and landlords - more wealth, less military power.Peter Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13289172253358199028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-15704359528534394422016-08-01T17:03:27.604-04:002016-08-01T17:03:27.604-04:00One possibly interesting sidelight: William Caxton...One possibly interesting sidelight: William Caxton, an English merchant attached to the household of Margaret, married to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and sister to Edward IV and Richard III, printed the first book in English in Bruges around 1473 and subsequently set up the first press in London in 1476 or 1477, bringing Wynkyn de Worde and others. It has been suggested that some of the irregularities of English orthography are attributable in part to the prominence of Flemish speakers among early London typesetters and printers.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-83416980785674820292016-08-01T16:46:14.497-04:002016-08-01T16:46:14.497-04:00The downside of being Flanders and being the ruled...The downside of being Flanders and being the ruled not the rulers was that repeatedly it became the scene of battles and wars -- not just the Western Front of the First World War and Napoleon's Waterloo.<br />.<br />The Eighty Years War for Dutch independence ushered in the golden age for the Dutch, but it was often pretty miserable in Flanders. When the United Provinces achieved independence in 1648, the terms of the peace closed the Scheldt and ruined Antwerp.<br /><br />Napoleon saw the potential in reviving Antwerp as a major port, but the establishment of the United Netherlands after 1815 left what would become Catholic Belgium politically and economically disadvantaged. The Belgian Revolution didn't help, as political power and wealth shifted heavily toward Wallonia. Ghent, pioneer of industrial textiles outside Britain saw its economy collapse, when prolonged disputes cut off access to the sea. Flanders, oppressed in language by French-speaking Wallonia and without the latter's iron and coal, was enveloped in poverty well into the 20th century. It was only in the latter half of the 20th century, as the First Industrial Revolution of Coal and Iron faded into obsolescence that wealth again tipped its scales decisively to Flanders.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-33502071378982190532016-08-01T08:17:50.241-04:002016-08-01T08:17:50.241-04:00Peter,
But Aachen is in Germany, if near the b...Peter,<br /> But Aachen is in Germany, if near the border with Netherlands and Belgium and not very close to Flanders. Indeed, you are making my point. The Benelux nations, with Flanders as the richest and most denselyh populated part, was the economic core of the Carolingian Empire, but rule came from outside of there, if not too far outside. After the trifurcation at Verdun, Lotharingia (to morph into Lorraine) in the middle was viewed as the richest part because it contained the low countries, but it came to be ruled from Burgundy, far to the south. Everybody wanted its action, but it was unable to assert itself to dominate that, with the outsiders calling the shots, and when a local had a chance in the case of Charles V in the 1500s, he ran off to France and Spain to rule (of course Spain at that time was accumulating huge territories in the Americas).rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-6724222655594927062016-08-01T06:35:05.056-04:002016-08-01T06:35:05.056-04:00Not quite true to say that the Netherlands was alw...Not quite true to say that the Netherlands was always ruled from elsewhere. The Netherlands were the core of the Carolingian Empire- hence Charlemagne's palace at Aachen. And it was the centre of Burgundian power in the late middle ages for a century or so.Peter Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13289172253358199028noreply@blogger.com