From Producer of Ideas to Protector of Interests

Abstract

Economic empires form when a number of different forces come together at one time. A disproportionately large endowment of an important factor of production, usually resources or labor, is a common element of all economic empires. These endowments may come through conquest and colonization, or discovery and domestic population growth.

Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.

(Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist, 1802–1885)