Prosperity Requires Investment 5-21-24

Economic history reveals what actions taken by governments and private sector investors have led to prosperity. The first rule is “Don’t run out of cash”. The next rule is “Don’t print money and cause inflation”.

The next rule is “Don’t spend money you don’t have”. The next rule is “Don’t run up a huge debt”. 

There are also some rules worth following. “Make all the goods you need”, “Export more than you Import”, “Anticipate changes in exports and imports” and “Don’t overspend”.

The rise and fall of Rome reveals how the Roman Senate, established in 753BC recognized that Rome’s location and access to the Mediterranean Sea provided access to increasing trade. The Senators were land owners, business owners and military leaders who occupied the legislature. They understood investment in agriculture, trade, infrastructure and a strong military.

Roman Senators were fans of the Greek Empire established by 1100BC and Etruscan Kingdom established in 900BC. They also knew that expanding trade in the Mediterranean was an attainable goal.

In 509BC, began to expand and by 409BC had defeated the Etruscans and tribes living in the hills surrounding Rome and expanded its territory to include more farm land and sea ports. This expansion required Rome to invade their neighbors.

As Rome became wealthier, Germanic tribes began to raid Roman outposts in Northern Italy.

The Gauls, Rome’s Germanic neighbors, sacked and burned Rome in 390 B.C. This was a wake-up call.

The Romans rebounded and eventually gaining control of the entire Italian peninsula by 264 B.C.

This expansion required Rome to end raids by Germanic tribes.

In 264BC, Rome annexed Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and Sicilian Greek cities, as well as Carthaginian towns and native communities, were conquered.

In 146BC, Rome annexed Sicily and then Sardinia and Corsica. Both sides prepared to renew the struggle.

Carthage acquired a part of Spain and recruited Spanish troops. Rome consolidated its position in Italy by conquering the Gauls, thereby extending its rule northward from the Po River to the Alps.

In 146BC, the Roman army took Carthage, enslaved its remaining 50,000 inhabitants, burned the buildings to the ground, and ritually sowed the site with salt to guarantee that nothing would ever grow there again. Carthaginian territory was annexed as the province of Africa.

From 146BC to 330AD, Rome expanded to include Spain, France and England in the West and parts of the Mediterranean coastal regions of the Middle East and Africa. The Senate allowed Emperors to rule. The size of the Roman Empire was beginning to be to big to maintain. Gold and Silver coins were issued with much less gold and silver. No new expansion limited the Empire’s income.  

In 330 AD Emperor Constantine established the Eastern Empire.

In 410AD, Alaric, king of the Visigoths, sacked Rome and Roman soldiers left Britain, signaling the beginning of the end of the Western Empire.

The rise and fall of Roman Empire from 264BC to 410AD gives good examples of expansion to open trade for opportunity vs expansion for defense against Germanic raiders. It also gives good examples of retreating from territory when you can no longer afford to protect it. 

With the fall of Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871.

More recent examples of conquered territory being lost is the defeat of Germany in World War 2 in 1944. After conquering Europe, Germany invaded Russia and imploded for lack of resources.

In 1989, the USSR realized that they could no longer afford to support the satellite countries it had acquired after WW2. In 1991, the USSR dissolved and became the Russian Republic.

The USSR was replaced by 15 independent countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Yugoslavia became a Socialist Republic in 1945 and boke up in 1992 to form Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.

Ukraine had been part of Russia but was released in 1991. Since then, the Russian Republic has reannexed Georgia and Crimea and invaded Ukraine in 2021.

Like the Romans, the USSR lacked the funds to maintain its satellite countries. This is the largest current realignment of countries due to unaffordability to take place since the Roman pull-back that began in 410AD.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader