[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

This article represents purely economic thinking. Carthage was vastly wealthier than was Rome. Rome thought in political terms rather than economic terms and plowed Carthage's farms with salt.

As a great historian stated" Those who think only in economic terms are ever victims of those who don't."

[hinckley buzzard]

I think the lesson of history since the days of mercantilism and especially the twentieth century is that political power follows economic power. Spain became a world power through the windfall of silver and gold harvested in the New World. Britain became a power through their industrial might, among other things.

The resurgence of Germany in the thirties was fuelled and given credibility by economic recovery first. Hitler could work his geopolitical wizardry because he had a strong economy behind him.

The post-war hegemony of the United States is a profound case in point. Reagan vanquished the USSR through economic pressure, not political ideology.

The Saudis have had inordinate political influence because they have vital economic leverage. Without oil they'd be a political nonentity. The world's "crisis" situation today is driven by economics, not politics. Economic strength is not the only thing but it matters a great deal. Now maybe more than ever.

[vbmoneyspender]

Carthage was vastly wealthier than was Rome. Rome thought in political terms rather than economic terms and plowed Carthage's farms with salt.

I guess it depends how you define the terms 'economic' and 'political'. Plowing the land of someone you hate with salt strikes me as thinking economically as much as it is does thinking politically.

During the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans (at the prompting of Alcibiades) built a fort outside of Athens that succeeded in cutting off the Athenians from their silver mines. The thinking behind the building of the fort was that the silver mines were the principal source of wealth the Athenians relied on to pay the rowers for their ships. In carrying out this successful strategy, which didn't even involve a direct attack on Athens, were the Spartans thinking economically or politically? I would say both. The Spartans recognized that if you attacked the Athenians economically, you would defeat them politically - which they eventually did.