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mburnamfink 's review for:
The Verge is popular history by a popular podcaster, with the strengths and weaknesses that the format entails. Wyman focuses on the pivotal decades between 1490 and 1530, when Europe went from an impoverished footnote in the global economy to the cradle of empires and much of what we consider modernity. The events which bookend this period are Columbus' famous expedition which discovered the Americas, and the 1527 Sack of Rome, when an army consisting of unpaid German mercenaries under the nominal command of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked and looted Rome, the holiest site in Christendom.
The book is structured around biographies. Some of the subjects are famous: Columbus and Martin Luther foremost among them, with banker Jakob Fugger rounding out the trio. Three monarchs are included: Isabella of Spain, Charles V, and Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I. I found most fascinating the ordinary men, Man-at-arms Gotz von Berlichlingen, wool merchant John Heritage, and printer Aldus Manutius. Wyman has a talent for making the past come alive, and he hooks you with short fiction reconstructing what he subjects likely felt as they approached their pivotal events, before going into the context of their lives.
Where this book falls short is in the larger thesis. Wyman wants to say something about the institutions of capitalism and credit, but whether from an dislike of Marxist theory (a fair dislike), or an attempt to avoid alienating the reader, he repeatedly hammers the idea of the institution of credit and an attitude of venture as the key points that mark this great divergence. The two major elements of Europe's poverty through the 15th century was the aftermath of the demographic catastrophe of the Black Death, and more subtle effects of the bullion famine. There simple wasn't enough precious metal in Europe to enable the economy to function, and what little there was was sent East to purchases spices and other luxuries.
In the absence of specie, Europeans developed a system of credit where upfront cash could be repaid over years through incomes. On a mundane sense, this let woll merchant John Heritage take delivery of goods with a small payment where the total would be paid through the year, only after he had sold on to major exporters. Or a printer could have the money and time needed to invest in cases of type. Money could be invested in ships, in trade, and in war. This last bit, the alliance between kings and bankers, was needed to sustain an increasingly expensive and technological war machine. It's also where the thesis breaks down, because war is and was profoundly destructive, the opposite of investments in prudent capital.
The aim of The Verge is to describe the shift from a medieval mindset, one focused on tradition, personal ties, and martial honor, towards a modern world of innovation, profit, and credit worthiness. But where a serious book would get into the details, Wyman unfortunately gets cloudy and points towards a shared sense of how trade worked, rather than the specific mechanisms and relationships, and how they are both continuous and different from our 21st century versions. It's a shame, because the late David Graeber put it all much better in Debt, when he described these people as heavily indebted murderers who reduced everything around them to ready cash to stave off their financial day of reckoning a little bit further.
The book is structured around biographies. Some of the subjects are famous: Columbus and Martin Luther foremost among them, with banker Jakob Fugger rounding out the trio. Three monarchs are included: Isabella of Spain, Charles V, and Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I. I found most fascinating the ordinary men, Man-at-arms Gotz von Berlichlingen, wool merchant John Heritage, and printer Aldus Manutius. Wyman has a talent for making the past come alive, and he hooks you with short fiction reconstructing what he subjects likely felt as they approached their pivotal events, before going into the context of their lives.
Where this book falls short is in the larger thesis. Wyman wants to say something about the institutions of capitalism and credit, but whether from an dislike of Marxist theory (a fair dislike), or an attempt to avoid alienating the reader, he repeatedly hammers the idea of the institution of credit and an attitude of venture as the key points that mark this great divergence. The two major elements of Europe's poverty through the 15th century was the aftermath of the demographic catastrophe of the Black Death, and more subtle effects of the bullion famine. There simple wasn't enough precious metal in Europe to enable the economy to function, and what little there was was sent East to purchases spices and other luxuries.
In the absence of specie, Europeans developed a system of credit where upfront cash could be repaid over years through incomes. On a mundane sense, this let woll merchant John Heritage take delivery of goods with a small payment where the total would be paid through the year, only after he had sold on to major exporters. Or a printer could have the money and time needed to invest in cases of type. Money could be invested in ships, in trade, and in war. This last bit, the alliance between kings and bankers, was needed to sustain an increasingly expensive and technological war machine. It's also where the thesis breaks down, because war is and was profoundly destructive, the opposite of investments in prudent capital.
The aim of The Verge is to describe the shift from a medieval mindset, one focused on tradition, personal ties, and martial honor, towards a modern world of innovation, profit, and credit worthiness. But where a serious book would get into the details, Wyman unfortunately gets cloudy and points towards a shared sense of how trade worked, rather than the specific mechanisms and relationships, and how they are both continuous and different from our 21st century versions. It's a shame, because the late David Graeber put it all much better in Debt, when he described these people as heavily indebted murderers who reduced everything around them to ready cash to stave off their financial day of reckoning a little bit further.