Tech monopolies tend not to fall like Rome. They fall like Venice. They’re still there, and no-one actually invades them, but the trade routes moved, the things that gave them power and wealth stop mattering, and they become just another city, and then a backwater.
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The Portuguese and Dutch didn’t take over Venice’s trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean. They sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and went direct to the sources further east. Nothing Venice had gave it any lead in that - you can’t take a galley to India
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Replying to @benedictevans
Benedict, indeed. I agree. There are other interesting analogies. The fundamental technology that held together the Venetians was the invention of financial systems double entry ledger, reserve banking, insurance, etc. When the nobility got too cumbersome they took it to Holland.
8:08 AM - 12 May 2019
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