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The first expression of an economic system founded on overreach | blogjou

Ben Rawlence

The Treeline

p. 5
05 Nov 2023

The first expression of an economic system founded on overreach


The Romanes, Danes and the nobles of England were in search of natural resources, principally timber. The colonisation of Wales was the first expression of an economic system founded on overreach: having exceeded the limits of what their own environment could sustain, early mercantilists applied force to acquire tribute and resources elsewhere. Empire, whether British, Viking, Roman or otherwise, is by definition overreach. And colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy share a common, perverse philospoph: limits on some human’s freedom of action are seen as an affront to the principle of freedom itself. The excat opposite of the co-evolutionary dynamic of the forest.