World’s Investors Facts Watch

Iron Pig iron is cast iron high (over 4%) in carbon, liable to break or crack under shock. Wrought iron comes from burning off some of the carbon in pig iron and working it (hammering, drilling, forging) to make it tougher against shock, more resistant to corrosion. It combines strength with malleability. Steel has even less carbon than wrought iron and is more flexible and stronger, and takes more stress. Layered steel, invented in Nurenberg, extra-strong blades are produced by folding cementation steel edge over itself, re-hammering and refolding and re-hammering it repeatedly as in making Samurai swords. Crucible steel was invented by Benjamin Huntsman in 1740 and especially serves the making of springs.

Tags: knowledge, manufacture, science

Monroe Doctrine was only a declaration by US president James Monroe in 1823 and was never ratified by an act of congress and thus is no law. It claims that any further European colonial ambitions in the western hemisphere would be regarded as a threat to US peace and security and that the USA would not interfere in European affairs. It aimed at restricting European powers from intervention against South American colonies (now states) that became independent. The doctrine was in fact drafted by John Quincy Adams to engulf previous statements by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It has since been applied elsewhere to freed colonies, dominions, protectorates, dependencies and overseas departments that could attract European or imperial interest.

Tags: America, colony, country, culture, economics, money, politics, sociology, trade

Guinea The name came from the Berber word ‘akal-n-iguinaouen‘, meaning ‘land of blacks‘; similar to the names Sudan, Azania and Ethiopia’ which all refer to the African dark skin colour. 17th century maps showed  ‘genehoa‘ as a region approximately that of today’s Mauretania and Mali, north of Senegal. However, Guinea was taken as the whole wide region south of the Niger river in West Africa, including today’s Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Because Guinea and Gold Coast were both sources of gold, there is speculation that the two words may be etymologically related. From time immemorial, stories have been told of rich African rulers with huge wealth of gold obtained from the sub-Saharan hinterland, including one who took so much gold as gift on his way to Mecca, that the price of gold fell dramatically everywhere he came. The high purity of African gold gave the guinea gold coin a higher value than the English Pound Sterling -21 instead of 20 shillings. Out of colonial European greed,  the association with gold gave Guinea such an appeal that other areas elsewhere in the world also got the name including New Guinea in the Indies north of Australia in Oceania, former Dutch Guyana (Surinam), and Guinea Bissau west of Liberia and Portuguese Guinea. In south America, there are the French Guyana and British Guyana all named from a corruption of Guinea. The proper Guinea today is the West African country Guinea with Conakry as its capital.

Conakry The capital of Guinea dates from 1884 and was called Konakri by the Susu folk, meaning ‘beyond waters‘ or the other shore; on account of its remote location on the peninsula.

Fouta Djalon This slope in Guinea got its name from the ‘Dialonke’ people. Fouta Plain in Senegal took the name from the Mande word for ‘plain‘.

Tags: Africa, colony, gold, Guinea, history, money

Asante or Ashante or Ashanti in present day republic of Ghana in west Africa started as a union of trading people mostly the Akan, with a large market in Kumasi. Due to their persistent self-identity, they were regarded as a folk by the Europeans after 1700. Their leader sits on the Golden Stool to underpin their power on the gold trade. The high quality of their gold which was coined as the guinea led to a higher value of the guinea than the English pound. Their name Ashanti in fact  means ‘united in war‘, or a fighting union. (see Ghana)

Kumasi town in Ghana was founded in the 17th century by Osei Tutu, an Ashanti chief. The name comes from ‘kum asi‘ and means under the kum tree. It was situated at the location of the one kum seed that grew of the two trees planted by Okomfo Ankoye, the chief’s advisary priest.  (see Ashanti)

Tags: Africa, folks, Ghana, history, money, sociology

Soldier refers to a paid fighter. The sol (plural soldi) was a unit of money used as currency in Venice, for example, in paying workers at the Arsenal in 1534, and in Orleans in 1525, with sub-denomination in deniers. A labourer could earn 2 sols, 9 denier per day.

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Genoa This medieval Ligurian city-state also referred to as the city of Saint George, evolved as a merchant port and city before Venice, and also organised itself as a republic. It minted gold coins before Florence Florin coins came out in 1250, and the Venetian ducat (called zecchino or sequin) was issued by the mint – the Zecca – in Venice in 1284. Its very wealth made it a target of foreign powers who wanted to take it over – French king (1396), Milan’s duke (1462), Spanish rulers (1522), Sardinians (1746), and the Austrians. Like Venice, Genoa lacked the land area to source its own needs. Perched on the narrow plains between the bay and the steep high hills, it imported food, fuel, clothing and essential supplies from outside, filling its narrow streets with a traffic of goods and capital. Its strength was in its strategic location along the sea-trade route, buttressed by the financial creativity of the merchants controlling trade traffic between east and west. Its money of account – the lira di banco – known for its stability, was the forerunner of the Italian lira, before Milan became an industrial centre. Although Genoa beat Venice in a straight battle, its powers as a trade centre went down from 1627.

Tags: capitalism, city, history, money, republic, trade

Escudo The former Portuguese currency may have evolved from the ‘escuderos’ (meaning a squire or lower knight who therefore took employment as courtier for a more noble richer knight (caballeros) for a fee.

Tags: money, Portuguese

Peso was a silver coin, worth 450 maravedis in Spain of the 15th century, later becoming the standard Spanish currency.

Tags: money

Lire Long before the lira became the national Italian money, Venice’s mint the Zecca had its gold coin called the sequin, and its silver coin called the lire 17 of which was worth a sequin – mostly used in the trade with the Levant.

Tags: Italian, money, trade

Contrary to claims in many books, Adam Smith did not invent nor discover economics. The notion and practice preceded him by millennia among the Greeks. The very word economics came from the Latin term oeconomicus which came from the Greek word oikonomia, meaning household management or simply management.

Socrates discourse with Critobulus on household management (oikonomia) treated farm management as an art (tekne) or class of knowledge. We know this from the records of Xenophon (a mercenary in the Persian army of Cyrus) who applied the principles in creating the first park on his own estate by considering how to select which farm to buy, how much land to use, how to run it, what type of soil is best for what purpose, what good husbandry is, how a good farmer is also a good builder, what is proper soil fertilization, how to prevent epidemics among animals and in a region, and caring for worker’s health. These are all still important issues of concern to economists and policy makers today as they were to the Persian king Cyrus the Younger (descendant of Cyrus, the founder of Persia) in grooming his own gardens.  (read Civic Encyclopaedia)

Economics has been called the dismal science, meaning that it is not a science; for it is unable to grapple with culture and values -  two notions fundamental to its very core issues. Propensity and utility are philosophically too vague to catch the essence of value exchange, and ‘invisible hand‘ is too misty to guide insight (Cf dowsing). Cliometricians are quantitative economic historians.

The notion of comparative advantage is not so much the ability to produce at lower cost than competitors, but the ability to make more money from some activities than from other activities. The often used most favoured-nation principle ties politics too tightly to economics than economists acknowledge. The ideals of free trade and free competition are taught by those who stand to gain from laissez faire, laissez passer, laissez vendre based on the superstitious belief in the invisible hand when they sufficiently protect their own market. Hence the horse-shoe once cost more than the horse in colonial Buenos Aires. (see Economic Crisis)

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