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Nir Rosen's avatar

Hi! Thank you fir a great read. Can those countries survive as Kingdoms if they diversify? Control of resources, especially oil, since it is not labor intensive is very good for Monarchies, since the wealth is highly concentrated and they can "buy off" their citizens. Diversified economies don't work like that.

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Michael Magoon's avatar

Fascinating article. While I do not believe global oil and gas consumption is going to decline significantly for many decades, it is an interesting thought experiment.

I was also struck by your observation that almost all African kingdoms collapsed after the British abolished slavery. I had not heard that before.

I was wondering if you would be interested in doing a deeper dive to answer the following questions:

1) Just how important was slavery to the African kingdoms economically both before and during the Atlantic slave trade (not just whether it existed)? Was it wealth from slave labor or was it just income from selling slaves?

2) Did the abolition of slavery by British empire cause the societies to collapse or was it just an end to monarchies? Were there other factors?

I have tried to do some personal research on the subject, but there are very few books on the topic.

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