Very interesting Tadit, would you have any bibliography on these merchant network nations? see also http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/were-the-medieval-maghrebi-traders-p2p-pioneer... Michel On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 6:55 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
Regarding non-dominium, I mentioned once before the early establishment of various network nations at least in the early history of the Mediterranean et al. The same dynamic appears to have existed in the Indian Ocean region at least through the European Dark/medieval Ages and probably earlier. The Phoceans and the Phoenicians were both merchant network nations who established both home ports usually on islands. This pattern has been covered over by the framing of the development of the immediate region and beyond as "Greater Greece." There has been a severe distortion of the history confusing the later concept of territorial sovereignty with the process as it seemed to occur. Both Phoceans and the Phoenicians seemed to have originated our the Black Sea area as goddess or god/goddess cultures, What became identified as the Greek alphabet, was more likely the product of the needs of their mercantile basis for communication and record keeping.
The nominal Grecian/Persian wars was caused by the clashes between the Mycenaean Greek/palatial economy which operated in a gift/tribute economy and was based upon land ownership and slavery. This sort of gift economy was less than benign, and was essentially oligarchic/feudal. The response of that culture to the merchant networks cast the merchants as thieves diverting wealth from its accumulative patterns. The Persian empire of Cyrus and thereafter seems to have been more about controlling and protecting the Silk Road against bandits, for which the merchants were quite willing to pay taxes. The navies of Samos and Lesbos were extraordinarily large for small island city states except that they most likely operated as escorts to the merchant traffic and may well have been more directly offshoots of the merchant network nations. the attack by Persia upon the Mycenaean/Palatial Greeks was punitive and based upon the economics. The wide variety of allies involved in that punitive attack speak to its representation of a wide field of interests, see Herodotus's narrative. The Macedons were allies to the Persian Empire to such a degree that as the Persian Empire faded, Alexander and the Macedons were prepared to takeover and conduct that "empire" on a very similar basis. Describing Alexander as "Greek" seems to be another conflation by the Mycenaean Greeks, and their Eurocentric acolytes thereafter.
The Persian Empire was the primary stimulus to the cultural ascendancy of the Greater "Greek" and Ionian "Greek" cultures. Merchants after all and particularly in these examples brought ideas as well as goods to the scattered populations.
The Dhow cultures of the Indian Ocean represent another open seas/non-dominium sort of process. China's recent economic development seems to embrace this dynamic in part through recognition of the legacy of the mercantile history of the Han Dynasty. At this point PR China seems to be less about sovereign territory and projecting the threat of direct occupation, and more about setting up the infrastructure to facilitate global trade. The current domination of the commons by imperial militarism seems to repeat this conflict. The imperial cultures seem to have great difficulty operating outside of the bounds of threat and control. The creole-ization by language and by trade in this region has a long history.
simplistic labeling tends to distort the details of history. I am not quite to the point of putting together a more formal article on all of this. The Hanseatic league is similar example in its origin, though it seemed to redefine itself as a military force in response to operating against territorial. The effect of the Papal declaration of terra nullius was little more than another piece of cultural narcissism.
The virtual organization seems to be a more modern application of the same sort of dynamic.
for now, Tadit
On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:28:26 -0400, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> wrote:
thanks Chris, I really need you to write something on stewardship ... or point me to some good article on this by someone else?
Michel
On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 12:21 AM, Chris Cook <[email protected]>wrote:
Hi Michel
I hope your travels are productive.
You'll find this concept - Nondominium - relevant in respect of the Commons
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MI24Dj01.html
You'll see, once again, my view that custody/stewardship is preferential to Trusts, which I reckon were probably invented BY lawyers FOR lawyers ;-)
Best Regards
Chris
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