Timeline for What makes trading cities rich?
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35 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 27, 2018 at 20:49 | comment | added | Gramatik | As a note on the "Is travel by land actually so much more expensive than by sea" part, the amount of goods that a single cargo ship can carry is VASTLY greater than the amount of goods any land transport can carry. | |
| Aug 1, 2016 at 14:03 | history | protected | user3652621 | ||
| Jul 31, 2016 at 5:33 | comment | added | cas | BTW, be wary of what you read, especially from fans of american SF with a very simplistic an un-nuanced vision and understanding of economics - libertarian types think that even the most extortionate business service fees are fine and completely reasonable. but start foaming at the mouth with rage and hatred if workers want to get paid fairly or if any government wants to apply even a tiny tax to pay for essential infrastructure (including the roads etc that traders use) | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 5:27 | comment | added | cas | partly because of the dual inherent inefficiencies of profit and middle-men. people and businesses providing services (such as docks/freight terminals, loading and unloading, storage, guarding that storage, marketplaces, and much much more) all want to get paid for what they do. when outsiders pay for those services (either because they want to sell to the local market or just passing through), that results in more "money" coming into the local economy. Also, there are tolls and taxes that can be applied. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 4:12 | answer | added | Chloe | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 30, 2016 at 18:05 | answer | added | TechZen | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 21:00 | answer | added | Jeff | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 18:10 | comment | added | HC_ | Location, location, location! Trading cities are "naturally selected" to become such because of their location, to provide a general answer. I suspect the other answers go into depth why location matters. | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 14:38 | answer | added | Luiz | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 10:45 | vote | accept | Krateng | ||
| Jul 29, 2016 at 8:13 | comment | added | Luaan | @Sqeaky Intuition is tricky. It evolved in a very different environment than we have now, and our brain lies to us all the time about how well our predictions turned out. Don't forget that many of those rich people started out poor - hell, if you go far enough, everyone was poor. Some got their riches by force (taxation, theft...), some through trade or craft. It's easy to trace a lineage and see that that particular family was getting richer and richer over time - but each of those, there are (say) ten that got poor. Nobody cares about those :) | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 8:09 | comment | added | Luaan | @Sqeaky Sure, some of the rich become richer, and it takes investment to improve your living conditions, whether you're rich or poor. For a typical middle-class person in Europe or the US, that might mean not having as much luxury as they could (appear to) afford, and using it for savings etc. For a poor guy in Africa, it might mean half-starving while using the saved time to, say, make a fishing net. But it's not about being rich or poor - it's about the investment. And the rich are no less likely than the poor to make a bad investment that costs them all their riches. | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 3:25 | comment | added | Wayne Werner | It still takes less fuel to drive a barge up a river than it does to move the same material by truck. | |
| Jul 29, 2016 at 1:18 | comment | added | Sqeaky | @Luaan You are correct about the absolute wealthiest losing their money, but I suspect that most would find it intuitively true that someone with more options has a better/more opportunities to increase wealth. A homeless man on the streets or rural subsistence farming community will tend to do worse than an upper middle class tradesman/professional or a city with healthy trade and a port. Read up on social mobility and note that it works in a scale free way, the rich do indeed get richer until they become richest. | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 23:56 | answer | added | user23643 | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 13:14 | answer | added | pjc50 | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 12:55 | answer | added | Crowley | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 11:49 | comment | added | Luaan | @xeon "rich get richer" [citation needed]. Most rich people and families lost their wealth over time. Most of those who didn't used violence to keep their riches (e.g. taxes, or in a more modern approach, subsidies and violence-supported monopolies). However, this doesn't matter to the trading city - more rich people are attracted all the time (for trading opportunities, contacts etc.), while the newly poor can no longer afford to live there and leave. | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 4:46 | answer | added | o.m. | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 28, 2016 at 0:19 | answer | added | Cognisant | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 23:59 | comment | added | Vladislavs Dovgalecs | Few observations/laws: (1) "rich get richer", (2) "opportunities multiply as they are seized". The combination of the two is incredibly powerful. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 18:33 | comment | added | njzk2 | a bit of everything. tolls, of course, also merchants spending money there, and also local traders being in the city. The basic idea being that you need to force the goods to stop in your city and stay there for a while (changing hand, changing transportation medium, being transformed...) Then it self-sustains: because of the traders, merchants come here to sell, and others to buy. Each paying taxes, and spending money. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 18:13 | answer | added | kingledion | timeline score: 18 | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:54 | comment | added | Ranger | @Elas Exactly right. As I said: "economies of scale." If I can afford to go all out on the ship it's cheaper--if I can reach that level of scale--but anyone with a camel and a wagon can trade via land. One man with a camel can trade the product of several farmers (of the ancient era), but he can't trade the exports of a region. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:52 | comment | added | Elas | @Nex Terren How many goods you will transport by camel and how many by ship? | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:21 | vote | accept | Krateng | ||
| Jul 29, 2016 at 10:45 | |||||
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:21 | vote | accept | Krateng | ||
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:21 | |||||
| Jul 27, 2016 at 17:17 | answer | added | Thucydides | timeline score: 75 | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 16:48 | comment | added | Tryss | Also, in the trading cities, merchants don't just "travel through" : they live here, they build their mansion here, they organize parties here, they usually build/repair their ship here. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:54 | comment | added | Ranger | @Elas That does depend on economies of scale. You need enough funding to pay for a ship, maintenance costs for the ship, and a crew. To transport goods by land you need a camel. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:52 | comment | added | Elas | In current time with trains and trucks it's cheaper to send stuff by sea, not by land. And "sea infrastructure" didn't changed much, when land did. | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:50 | answer | added | Durakken | timeline score: 25 | |
| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:41 | history | edited | Brythan |
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| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:34 | review | First posts | |||
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| Jul 27, 2016 at 15:33 | history | asked | Krateng | CC BY-SA 3.0 |