نظرية اللعبة #6: بنك العالم
الترجمة العربية
أريد اليوم أن أفهم سلوككم — أنتم الطلاب الصينيين — وأفهم اللعبة التي تلعبونها. صراحةً، هذا السلوك غريب. سأُشير إلى ثلاثة أشياء تفعلونها لا تنتظم في منطق واضح.
أولها: تُنفقون جزءًا كبيرًا من وقتكم في تعلم اللغة الإنجليزية، ربما أكثر مما تُنفقونه في إتقان الصينية. هذا عجيب. حين أسألكم لماذا هذا التركيز على الإنجليزية، تأتي الإجابات: أريد اكتساب المعرفة، أريد السفر، أريد التواصل، أريد استخدام الإنترنت. هذه ليست إجابات مُقنعة. الثاني: هوسكم بالمال، وتحديدًا بالدولار الأمريكي. والثالث: أن هدفكم في الحياة الهجرة إلى دولة غربية، وتحديدًا الولايات المتحدة — الجميع يريد الذهاب إلى أمريكا للدراسة، والحصول على شهادة، والبقاء هناك. لكن كما ناقشنا من قبل، هذا غريب؛ لأن مكانتكم في الصين أعلى بكثير، وفرصكم في الحصول على عمل مرموق والزواج الجيد أكبر بكثير من فرصكم في أمريكا حيث اللعبة مُصمَّمة ضدكم.
لو فكرتم بهدوء، لكان الأجدى بكم إتقان الصينية. فمع عائلات متمكنة وراسخة في الصين، يمكن لمن يُتقن اللغة أن يرتقي بعيدًا. بدلًا من ذلك تتعلمون الإنجليزية. وأما الدولار، فما تريده فعلًا هو المكانة الاجتماعية: الاحترام، والوظيفة المرموقة، والزواج الكريم، والأبناء. هذه حقيقة ما تسعون إليه. لكنكم تركّزون على الدولار بدلًا من المكانة. وأما الهجرة، فأقصى ما يمكن لآسيوي شرقي أن يبلغه في أمريكا هو ربما أن يصبح مهندسًا أو أستاذًا جامعيًا، لكن السلطة السياسية والقيادة في الشركات الكبرى ستظل بعيدة عنه. خلاصة القول: أفضل الكفاءات الصينية تتطلع إلى أن تكون ناسًا عاديين في أمريكا أو بريطانيا أو كندا، وهذا مشهد غريب حقًا.
فالسؤال الذي أريد إجابته اليوم: كيف بُنيت هذه اللعبة؟ ولماذا نلعبها؟ والجواب: بسبب البريطانيين. أسس الإمبراطورية البريطانية هذه اللعبة، ثم ورثها الأمريكيون، وصار العالم كله يلعبها اليوم.
لنبدأ من التاريخ. كانت أوروبا على مدى تاريخها الطويل أرضًا فقيرة تسعى إلى الثروة عبر التجارة مع العالم، وتحديدًا البهارات القادمة من جزر الهند الشرقية — جنوب شرق آسيا. وكانت السلطة الكبرى في ذلك العصر للمسلمين الذين كانوا الممر الوحيد لمن أراد التجارة مع شرق آسيا. حين استعادت إسبانيا أراضيها من المسلمين، فرض هؤلاء رسومًا باهظة على كل تبادل تجاري، فاضطر الإسبان والبرتغاليون إلى البحث عن طرق بديلة نحو بلاد البهارات.
في ذلك العصر كانت البهارات أثمن سلعة في العالم — تفوق قيمتها الذهب. حمولة سفينة واحدة من القرفة وجوزة الطيب والفلفل الأسود كانت كافية لتأسيس ثروة تتوارثها الأجيال. فانطلق الإسبان والبرتغاليون يستكشفون آفاقًا جديدة، وتجنّبوا إفريقيا الموبوءة بالأمراض، وواصلوا الاستكشاف حتى وصلوا إلى أمريكا الشمالية والجنوبية. ووجدوا هناك شعوبًا ذات ثروات وإمبراطوريات قابلة للقهر كالأزتيك والإنكا، فأسّسوا مستعمراتهم وبدأت قوافل الفضة بالتدفق إلى إسبانيا. وبين عشية وضحاها غدت إسبانيا من أثرى بلاد العالم.
لكن كما ناقشنا في الدرس الماضي، الثروة المفرطة تُعيد تشكيل الشعوب. قبل هذا الثراء كان الإسبانيون أهل طاقة وانفتاح وتماسك — وهذا ما جعلهم إمبراطورية. فلما سالت عليهم الثروة أصابهم الانكفاء والغطرسة والانزواء. استراحوا عن العمل وقرّروا تعهيد جهودهم إلى غيرهم. الصناعة ذهبت إلى إنجلترا وهولندا وفرنسا تُنتج لهم الأقمشة والبضائع الفاخرة. والتجارة البحرية الشاقة إلى جزر الهند تكفّل بها الهولنديون — وهم مستعمَرو الإسبان — بدلًا منهم. أما الإنجليز، فأدركوا أن ثمة سفنًا محملة بالفضة تعبر المحيط، فانتهجوا القرصنة وسرقوها. وكان أشهر قراصنتهم سير فرانسيس دريك يعمل مباشرةً تحت إمرة الملكة إليزابيث الأولى — قرصنة برعاية الدولة صنعت ثروة بريطانيا الأولى.
هكذا ظهر التباعد الحتمي: الإسبان يغرقون في الكسل والغطرسة والانكفاء — وهذا ما يُسمى الهوبريس في اليونانية — يُبددون أموالهم في حروب لا تنتهي يشنّونها في كل اتجاه، يُخطئون تقدير حدود قدرتهم، وينزلقون إلى الإفلاس بالسرعة ذاتها التي صعدوا بها. في المقابل، إنجلترا وهولندا وفرنسا تتصاعد طاقتها وانفتاحها وتماسكها.
ومع تحوّل ميزان القوى، تحوّلت الأديان. إسبانيا بقيت كاثوليكية ودارت في فلك الكنيسة. أما إنجلترا وهولندا فاحتاجتا إلى هوية مستقلة عن إسبانيا، فتبنّتا البروتستانتية الكالفينية التي تُمجّد العمل والكسب والاجتهاد — عكس الكاثوليكية القائمة على الطاعة والسلطة. الإنجليز والهولنديون الفقراء، المنسجمون في عقيدة واحدة، قرّروا التحالف في ما عُرف بالثورة المجيدة عام 1688.
في هذه الثورة، دعا أشراف إنجلترا ويليام أوف أورانج — زعيم الجمهورية الهولندية — ليجلس على العرش البريطاني. لماذا يخون الأشراف ملكهم؟ لأن طوال التاريخ البريطاني كان الملك في صراع دائم مع النبلاء — الملك في مواجهة الأوليغارشية. وظاهريًا السبب ديني: الملك الإنجليزي كاثوليكي وإنجلترا بروتستانتية. لكن الحقيقة أن الأشراف أرادوا إرساء سيادتهم. وفي هذا الاتفاق أصبح البرلمان هو القوة الفعلية، وقبل ويليام أوف أورانج أن يكون رمزًا لا حاكمًا. هكذا وُلدت السيادة الوطنية. لكن ما لا يُقال علنًا هو أن الدافع الحقيقي كان حماية رأس المال — رأس المال العابر للحدود.
مع ويليام جاءت الثروة الهولندية كلها، لأن الهولنديين كانوا يُغارُ عليهم من الإسبان. نقلوا ذهبهم إلى إنجلترا. وفي عام 1694 أُسّس بنك إنجلترا وفق فكرة بسيطة: من يضع أمواله في البنك فماله مضمون، ضامنه البرلمان وليس الملك. هذه نقلة جذرية. قبلها كانت القروض تُمنح للملوك: الملك يُمكن أن يُهزم، أو يموت، أو يرفض السداد ببساطة لأنه ملك. والتجار لا حيلة لهم إلا محاولة الثورة. أما بنك إنجلترا فغيّر المعادلة: المقرض لم يعد يُقرض الملك بل يُقرض الأمة. والأمة لا تموت، والشعب مُلزَم بالسداد حتى لو تغيّر الملك. وإنجلترا جزيرة تحميها البحرية الملكية، لا يستطيع أحد غزوها. فأصبحت أأمن ملاذ للثروة في العالم.
والسؤال: لماذا سيثق الهولنديون بالإنجليز؟ العلاقات الأسرية والعقيدة الدينية المشتركة وما يُسمى بالجمعيات السرية — إذ كان الإنجليز والهولنديون معًا كالفينيين، والجمعية التي سهّلت هذا التحالف التجاري كانت الماسونية. وطوّروا في هذا السياق مفهومًا مُنظَّمًا لقانون العقود. الفيلسوف جون لوك صاغ الفلسفة: الغاية من الحكم توفير ثلاثة حقوق — الحياة، والحرية، وحماية الملكية الخاصة. القضاء والبرلمان كلاهما في خدمة هدف واحد: حماية الملكية الخاصة مهما كان مصدرها. لا يسألون عن الأصل. الذهب مسروق من مليون إنسان؟ هو ملكك. الله أراد ذلك. إنجلترا تحميه. هكذا صارت إنجلترا أول مركز مالي خارجي في التاريخ — ما نُسمّيه اليوم الأوف شور فاينانشيال سنتر — كالإمارات وسنغافورة وسويسرا: لا يسألون عن مصدر المال ويحمونه بالقانون والأبناك.
أول اختبار جدي للمنظومة كان نابليون؛ لو فتح أوروبا لانقطعت روافد الثروة عن إنجلترا. فموّلت بريطانيا سبع حروب ضده، خسرت ستًا وانتصرت في السابعة — الأخيرة كافية لترسيخ الإمبراطورية البريطانية العالمية.
وجاءت شركة الهند الشرقية — خاصة كبنك إنجلترا — لتُجسّد هذه الإمبراطورية المالية. تخصصت في استنزاف ثروات الهند بتدمير صناعاتها المحلية أولًا؛ كانت للهند صناعة نسيجية راسخة فأفلستها السياسات البريطانية ونقلتها إلى إنجلترا. المواد الخام والمنتجات الزراعية تُصدَّر من الهند إلى إنجلترا، والسلع المُصنَّعة تُستورَد من إنجلترا بأسعار مُجحفة. المعادلة: بريطانيا تُعطي الهند دولارًا وتأخذ منها ألفًا. وبالمنطق ذاته دخل الأفيون الصين لتخرج منها الفضة نحو إنجلترا. ثم تدفّق هذا المال إلى الولايات المتحدة التي تصنّعت بسرعة مذهلة بفضله.
كيف نجح الإنجليز في جعل الهند والصين تتخلّيان عن ثرواتهما طوعًا؟ عبر إغراء النخب المحلية. النخب كانت في تنافس دائم فيما بينها وتبحث عن نفوذ. فقال الإنجليز لهم: ساعدونا في نهب بلدانكم وسنُمكّنكم من تهريب أموالكم وأبنائكم إلى الخارج. قبل ذلك كان الخاسر في التنافس معرّضًا للقتل؛ لكن مع الإنجليز أصبح بإمكانه نقل ثروته وأبنائه إلى بر الأمان. وثمة ثلاثة آليات تُتيح هذا.
أولاهن: المنظومة المالية. لا يكتفي الإنجليز بالسماح بتهريب الأموال بل يُخفّون مصدرها. هذا هو غسيل الأموال: المسروق من الشعوب يدخل المراكز المالية كهونغ كونغ وسنغافورة فتُحوّله مكاتب القانون والمحاسبة من مكاسب السرقة والمخدرات والفساد إلى استثمارات في المطاعم والعقارات، ثم يُعاد ضخه شرعيًا في ملكيات عقارية في أستراليا وكندا. منظومة غسيل مالي عالمية تُشجّع النخب على الفساد وتحميهم فيه.
وثانيتهن: المدارس. حين استعمر الإنجليز الهند والصين، أسّسوا مدارس لأغراض التلقين والترويض. ماذا تتعلم في هذه المدارس؟ تتعلم الإنجليزية. وحين تتعلم الإنجليزية تتعلم شكسبير والفلسفة البريطانية والتاريخ البريطاني، فتصل رويدًا إلى قناعة بأن الثقافة البريطانية أرقى وأن الأجدر بك أن تكون بريطانيًا. والأذكى في ذلك أن هذا النظام يُتيح الحراك الاجتماعي: في بلدك النظام جامد ومُغلق، لكن إن أتقنت الإنجليزية وآمنت بتفوق الثقافة البريطانية ربما نلت منحة إلى أكسفورد أو كامبريدج. ومنح رودس هي فعلًا نوع من الجمعيات السرية: يُختار أذكى طلاب الإمبراطورية ويُصبحون أصدقاء في أكسفورد ثم سفراء للإمبراطورية في بلدانهم. هذا نظام تلقين عبقري للنخب المحلية لأنه يُقدّم ما لا تُقدّمه المنظومات المحلية المُغلقة.
وثالثتهن: البحرية. لا يحتاج شرح — من يرفض هذه المنظومة يجد الأسطول البريطاني على شواطئه كما جرى في حروب الأفيون مع الصين.
إذن، المنظومة المالية عبر بنك إنجلترا، والقوة الناعمة عبر اللغة والثقافة الإنجليزية، والقوة الصلبة عبر البحرية — هذه الثلاثة صنعت أول إمبراطورية عالمية حقيقية في التاريخ.
واليوم، وإن غابت الإمبراطورية البريطانية بصورتها الظاهرة، اللعبة لا تزال تُلعَب. الإمبراطورية الأمريكية ورثتها. المراكز المالية الخارجية الكبرى في العالم — الكاريبي، وبنما، وشمال أوروبا، والخليج، وسنغافورة وهونغ كونغ — كلها من إرث الإمبراطورية البريطانية. والإمبراطورية لم تختفِ، بل تحوّلت من الصريح إلى الخفي، ومن قوة السلاح إلى قوة القانون والمال. وتجارة المخدرات اليوم لن تستطيع البقاء لحظة دون هذه المنظومة القانونية المالية التي تغسل عائداتها وتحميها.
ولماذا لا يفعل الجميع ما تفعله المراكز المالية الخارجية؟ لأن المجتمعات تحتاج إلى أخلاق. الأخلاق هي ما تبني الطاقة والانفتاح والتماسك. الناس يريدون الشعور بأنهم جزء من شيء نبيل. مجتمع يقوم على الفساد وغسيل الأموال يفقد روحه ويفسد. هونغ كونغ مثال صارخ: مدينة ثرية مليئة بناطحات السحاب لكن تُفتقر فيها ثقافة حقيقية وأخلاق حقيقية. هذه منظومة شيطانية — لا تمارس الشر فحسب، بل تُوجِده وتُيسّره.
والنتيجة الكبرى لهذه المنظومة: فرط التمويل، أي تراكم الأموال إلى حد يُفسد صاحبها. هذا ما يجري الآن في كندا وأمريكا وبريطانيا وأستراليا — كسل ونرجسية وانكفاء وفساد سياسي. الغرب يموت ضحية نجاحه. نهب العالم لأجيال، وتراكمت الثروة، فانتجت نخبًا فاسدة ومجتمعات مُفككة وتفاوتًا صارخًا وسياسة لا تخدم إلا الأثرياء. نحن عند نقطة إعادة ضبط اللعبة، وثمة لعبة جديدة على وشك الظهور.
طالبٌ سأل: إذا كان النجاح يُفضي حتمًا إلى الفساد والسقوط، فما معنى النجاح أصلًا؟ جواب بالغ الأهمية. الطبقة الأولى: الثروة لا تُفضي إلى السعادة. ما يُفضي إلى السعادة هو الأسرة والمحبة والانتماء إلى مجتمع والغاية والكرم. أسعد الناس أكثرهم تدينًا وأرسخهم في العلاقات الأسرية. فلماذا نمجّد الثروة؟ لأن اللعبة هيكلت المجتمع على هذا الأساس: نعبد الأثرياء ونحتقر الفقراء ونظن الفقر استحقاقًا وكسلًا.
ولماذا وُجدت هذه اللعبة المُدمِّرة أصلًا؟ لأنها تُنتج في المدى القصير — عقود لا قرون — المجتمع الأشد طاقةً وانفتاحًا وتماسكًا، والأقدر على الانتصار على المنافسين. في المدى البعيد تُدمّر الناس. لكن في المدى القريب تمنحك تفوقًا ساحقًا. بهذا انتصر الإنجليز على الفرنسيين والألمان والروس، وباتت المنظومة تُفرض على المنافسين: إما أن تلعب بها وإما أن تُستبعَد. مثل الدواء المنشط في الأولمبياد: رياضي يتناوله فيفوز، والآخرون مُرغَمون على الاختيار بين اتباعه أو الخسارة، رغم أن الجميع يعرف أنه يُدمّر الجسد على المدى البعيد. مأساة حقيقية تقوم على أسبقية المكاسب الآنية على الخسائر المستقبلية.
وفي الدرس القادم: كيف أضافت الإمبراطورية الأمريكية الدولار إلى هذه اللعبة وجعلتها أشمل وأيسر، وكيف غزا الرأسمال العالم.
Game Theory #6: The World's Bank
Original Transcript
Today I want to examine why you Chinese students behave the way you do. Believe it or not, but the way that you behave — the game that you are playing — is strange. It's weird. So I'll point out three things that you do that don't really make any sense.
The first thing is that you spend a lot of your time learning English. In fact, you probably spend more time learning English than you do learning Chinese. That's weird. I've asked Chinese students before why they are so focused on learning English, and their answers usually are: I want to learn knowledge, I want to go abroad, I want to communicate, I want to use the internet. That's not really a good explanation. The second thing that's weird is you're obsessed with making money, especially US dollars. And the third thing that's weird is that your goal in life is to immigrate to a western country, specifically the United States. You all want to go to the United States for college, get a degree, and hopefully stay there and get a good job. But as we discussed before, that's strange because you are much higher status in China. You're much more likely to get a good job and much more likely to marry a desirable woman than you are in the United States, where the game is rigged against you.
If you think about it, what you should really be trying to do is master Chinese. Because once you master Chinese, and given your family background and the fact that your family is often wealthy and well connected in China, you can climb up pretty high. If you learn Chinese, you're far better able to communicate yourself, far more likely to gain respect and status. But instead you learn English. And US dollars — that doesn't make any sense either. What you really want is status, right? You want to be well respected, you want a prestigious job, you want to marry a beautiful woman, you want to have lots of children. That's what you really want. But instead you're really focused on obtaining US dollars. And as for immigration — if you go to the United States, it's really a rigged game against you. The most that you can hope to obtain is maybe to become an engineer or a professor if you're really, really smart, but you're not going to achieve political power, you're not going to become a CEO of a major company.
So the question I want to look at today is: how was this game constructed? Why do we play this game? And the answer I will show you is because of the British. The British Empire created this game, which the Americans ultimately inherited, and which the entire world plays today because America is the global superpower.
So first I want to go into some history and explain how we got to where we are. For most of its history, Europe was a very poor place, and in order to obtain wealth it had to trade with the world. Specifically, it wanted spices from what they called the East Indies — Southeast Asia. At this time in history, the main power were the Muslims. And if you wanted to trade with East Asia, you had to go through them. At this point in history, Spain was Muslim — it was a place called Andalusia. But then the Christians were able to reconquer Spain, and the Muslims decided that if you want to trade with them, they would charge heavy levies. So now the Spanish and the Portuguese were forced to look for new routes to the Indies where the spices were.
Remember, at this time in history spices were the most valuable commodity — actually worth more than gold. One ship of cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppercorn, if you were able to bring it back to Europe, gave you intergenerational wealth. You would become one of the wealthiest people in Europe. So the Spanish and the Portuguese had no choice but to discover new routes. They went down around Africa, which was not really hospitable — lots of viruses and diseases. They started to explore all around the world and went to North and South America. When they arrived, they discovered that there were already peoples living there — the Aztecs, the Incas — with a lot of wealth because these were empires, and they could be easily conquered. So they set up colonies all around South America and a lot of silver was being transported back to Spain. Overnight, Spain became extremely wealthy.
But as we discussed last class, if you become too wealthy and too powerful, you change as a people. Before, you were energetic, open, cohesive — that's what made you an empire. But now all this wealth makes you insular, arrogant, and extremely closed-minded. You become lazy. The Spanish had all this wealth and decided they really didn't want to work anymore. So what happened? They started to subcontract their labor to other places, primarily England, France, and the Dutch Republic, to provide textiles and luxury goods to Spain.
The first thing that happened was industry: since the Spanish were so wealthy they didn't want to work, they got other nations to be their factories — Britain, the Dutch Republic, and France. The second thing was trade: since the Spanish were so wealthy they could just hire the Dutch to go to the East Indies and bring back spices, which was a very dangerous job — you could get sick, you could die, you could lose a lot of money. The reason the Dutch agreed to this is that the Dutch were basically a colony of the Spanish. The third thing that happened was piracy. All this silver was being transported from the New World back to Spain. And what the English realized was: why not engage in piracy and steal this silver for ourselves? The most famous pirate of this time was of course Sir Francis Drake, who worked directly under the monarch Elizabeth the First. This was state-sponsored piracy that made Britain very wealthy.
So now you have this divergence. The Spanish, because of their wealth, became lazy, insular, and arrogant — which is the word hubris. Lazy means you make others do it for you. Insular means you're no longer concerned about other nations because you think you're invincible, so you engage in court politics, infighting for the throne. And arrogance, hubris, means you believe you are invincible, you can do whatever you want, and therefore you start all these wars against everyone everywhere. You overextend yourself and don't really understand your limitations as an empire. Very quickly, even though Spain became very wealthy very fast, they also went bankrupt very fast — fighting too many wars, spending too much money they didn't have, too corrupt.
And because of this, what's happening is that England, the Dutch, and the French are slowly becoming a much more energetic, open, and cohesive society. And now, with this differentiation, religion changes. Spain remains Catholic and fights to control the Vatican. Britain and the Dutch need to differentiate themselves from Spain, so they become Protestant, or Calvinist. Catholic religion is really about obeying authority, but Protestant Calvinist religion insists on hard work, on energy, on obtaining wealth.
The Spanish are too powerful, and the French are mostly Catholic. So what's going to happen is that the English and the Dutch are going to decide to join forces. You can see from the trade maps that the people really engaged in trade, piracy, and shipping are the British and the Dutch, because they're poor. Through this hard work they become very wealthy very quickly — the Dutch in fact become the wealthiest nation in the world per capita. A burgeoning middle class emerges.
And now, the Spanish and the Dutch come into conflict, because the Dutch are a colony of the Spanish and the Spaniards want the Dutch to pay more taxes while the Dutch want to be more independent. This starts a series of wars — in fact an entire series of wars called the Thirty Years' War. Ostensibly it's a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, but underlying it are many other factors. Millions and millions of people die — it is the deadliest war in Europe right up until World War I.
This creates anxiety among merchants and capitalists: you've acquired all this wealth through trade, but if the Spanish or the French send an army to steal everything, how do you keep your gold safe? And so what's going to happen is that the British and the Dutch are going to decide to get married — what we call the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
In the Glorious Revolution, what happens is that the British nobility invite William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Republic, to come and become the monarch of Britain. Why would they do that? Why would they betray their own king and install a foreign monarch? Throughout British history, what makes Britain unique is that the monarch has always been in conflict with the nobility — the king has always been in conflict with the oligarchs. Ostensibly the reason is religious, because the existing king was Catholic and Britain is a Protestant country. But the real reason is that the nobility wants to exert authority over the country.
In this agreement, Parliament becomes the sovereign state — the de facto power in England. William of Orange agrees to be a figurehead, and the real power is in Parliament. This creates the idea of national sovereignty. But what people don't appreciate is that the real reason they wanted to do this was to protect capital — transnational capital. Not only did William of Orange come over, but most of Dutch wealth came over too, because at this time the Dutch had a huge problem: they were constantly being invaded by Spain. So they took all the gold in the Dutch Republic and transferred it to England.
And in 1694 they created the Bank of England. The idea is this: if you buy into the Bank of England, that gold is yours. But the Bank of England will always be guaranteed by Parliament. This is a very important idea. I need you to understand this for the rest of the semester.
Before this, if you were a king and you needed to go fight a war, you borrowed money from bankers and merchants. The problems were: one, you could lose the war; two, you could die; and three, you could just say "I'm king, I'm not going to give you back your money," and these merchants would have no choice but to try to create a revolution. But as a merchant and capitalist, you don't want to go through this process. The Bank of England changes this — now you are lending money not to the king but to the nation. What this means is that the nation has to pay you back. So even if the king dies, the people are liable for the debt. And England is safe because, unlike the Dutch Republic, England is an island protected by the Royal Navy. It's impossible for the French, the Habsburg Empire, or the Spanish to invade England.
Now the question is: why would the Dutch put their money in England rather than just getting screwed over? The way around this was through the old techniques — intermarriage, religion, and what we call secret societies, because both the Dutch Republic and England were Calvinist. The major society that facilitated this trade were the Freemasons. During this time it was really between aristocrats, and what they started to develop was a new concept — actually not new, but they really systemized it. It's called contract law.
There's a famous British philosopher named John Locke, who said that the purpose of government is to provide the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. What that means is: we will protect your safety, we will make sure you have the right to do whatever you want, and we will protect your private property. The entire purpose of Parliament and the courts — the judicial system — is to ensure that your private property is protected no matter where your private property came from. They don't care what the origin of the private property is. If you're French and you killed a million people to steal a million gold, they don't care. It's yours. It's private. And they believe this private property comes from God — it is yours because God willed it to be yours, and England must protect it through Parliament and through the court system.
So now if you're wealthy in Europe, you're encouraged to go invest in England. And this creates a concept that today we call the offshore financial center, or OFC — think of Dubai or Hong Kong, where they don't care where the money comes from, where the legal and financial system will help protect this money. Switzerland is a classic example. But England created this and built their entire nation around this idea.
The first major test to the system was Napoleon, because Napoleon was about to conquer Europe and England couldn't have that — if Napoleon conquered Europe, he could control all the wealth of Europe and blockade England. So what Britain did was finance seven wars against Napoleon. They lost six of these wars and won the last one, which secured the British Empire.
So now Britain is a global financial empire. The East India Company — based in Britain, private like the Bank of England — primarily engaged in trade with India and the East Indies. What England would do is colonize India and steal all the wealth of India, primarily by de-industrializing it. India had textile factories, but England through various policies bankrupted the Indian textile industry and transferred it to England. Resources and agricultural products from India transferred over to England, and England with its factories made goods for India. Basically the deal was: Britain gives India ten dollars and India gives Britain a thousand. Then there was China as well: opium went into China and silver and money went back to England. And then this money was allowed to flow over to the United States, which industrialized very quickly because of this policy.
The question is: how was England able to create a system in which India and China basically voluntarily gave up their wealth? The answer is that England simply created a game that incentivized local elites to cooperate. The local elites had to help the British steal. Why would local elites do that? Because — as we discussed last class — the local elites are in conflict with each other anyway and are always looking for more power. So England said to local elites: if you help us, we will help you steal the wealth from your country. Before, if you were an elite who lost a war, people could kill you. But now if you help the British, you can transfer your wealth and your children abroad.
There are certain mechanisms that allow them to accomplish this. The first mechanism is finance. Not only are you allowed to transfer your capital to the United Kingdom and its colonies, but they will disguise it for you — this is what we call money laundering. When you steal from your people, not only will Britain allow you to do this, but they will disguise it for you through their offshore financial centers — including Hong Kong and Singapore — where their lawyers will pretend that this money came not from drugs, not from gambling, not from prostitution, but from restaurants or real estate. They clean it up for you. This is money laundering. Then they will help you send it overseas where it becomes legitimate — real estate investments in Australia or Canada. So this is a global money laundering system that encourages local elites to be corrupt, protects them in their corruption, and incentivizes them in the corruption.
The second thing that allows this to happen is schooling. When the British conquered India and China, what they were trying to do was indoctrinate. They set up schools. When you went to these schools, what did you learn? You learned English. But when you learn English, you learn that British culture is superior to your local culture. You learn about Shakespeare, about British philosophy, about British history. As a result, you slowly come to believe that the British are superior and that you should try your best to be British.
And also, very importantly, the schooling system allows for mobility. If you're a really smart person in China, there's really little mobility for you in China. But if you go through the British system, you might win a scholarship to go study at Oxford or Cambridge. A Rhodes scholarship is basically a secret society: all over the British Empire, the very best students are selected to go to Oxford where they become best friends, and their mission will be to spread the power of the British Empire around the world. This is an indoctrination system for local elites, and it works really well because if you're a really smart person, the British offer you more opportunities for mobility than your own country does — your own country's system is very hierarchical, very static, with really no mobility. But if you're really smart and you obey the British and you believe that British culture is the very best in the world, you might become a Rhodes scholar and become part of the British Empire.
The third thing, of course, is the navy. The navy ensured that Britain was the greatest military power in the world. If they didn't like you, they would come and destroy you — that's what happened to China during the Opium Wars. Nothing could destroy the navy. So these three things — finance, the Bank of England; schooling, or the idea of soft power through English and British culture; and the navy — created really the world's first great world empire.
And so even though the British Empire is no longer around — it's now the American Empire — even though the opium trade has stopped, what's important for us to understand is that the game is still being played today. Consider the drug trade. Primarily cocaine — produced in Colombia and South America and then traveling all around the world. It's a very sophisticated system of trade. But none of this would be possible without the British financial and legal system. Why are people taking such risks and selling drugs? Because it's so lucrative. But you can only have this market if it's being protected by a legal and financial system. People only participate in this trade if they can be guaranteed that they can make a lot of money and then protect that money. What protects this money are the offshore financial centers — the areas where you can place your money, they won't ask where it came from, and they will clean it up for you through sophisticated legal and financial systems. Where are the major global financial offshore centers? In the Caribbean, in Panama, in northern Europe, in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia — Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan. This used to be the former British Empire. So the British Empire is still around today, but it has transformed from an overt empire that uses military power to control the world, to a covert, secret empire that uses financial and legal means. And it's still the game we play today.
There's a question someone asked me that is very good: if offshore financial centers like Hong Kong and Dubai are so profitable and it's such easy money, why doesn't everyone do it? The logic is very simple. We know that gambling, prostitution, human trafficking, slavery — all profitable. Why doesn't everyone do it? Because it's immoral. As a society, you need morality to create energy, openness, and cohesion. People want to feel as though they're part of something good, that they're serving a higher cause. And if you're all about slavery or prostitution or gambling or money laundering, people won't feel good about themselves. The souls become corrupted. The classic example is Hong Kong — one of the wealthiest cities in the world, lots of skyscrapers, but there is actually no culture to the place, no morality. This is almost a demonic system. This system not only is evil but facilitates evil. Unfortunately, this is the system we live in today. All this corrupt money from China, India, Malaysia flows to these offshore centers, and then goes to Australia to invest in real estate. The biggest industry in Australia is banking — which means Australia also engages in money laundering, cleaned up so people aren't aware of it. The same happens in Canada and the United States. This entire world is based on stealing from the third world and transferring this money to the first world.
This has led to a huge problem called over-financialization: there's too much money, so people become corrupt, lazy, arrogant, and insular. That's what's happening in Canada, the United States, Britain, and Australia. An empire must collapse at some point. The British, the western world — they are a victim of their own success. They stole all this money from the rest of the world, but this money has made their people lazy, corrupt, and arrogant. That's why we're seeing so much conflict right now in the western world. This money has created enormous inequality — maybe one percent of people have almost everything, and ninety-nine percent have very little to get by on. And you also have a lot of corruption where the political system no longer serves the interest of the people. And then you have immorality where nowadays people are only concerned about making money and don't want to contribute to the community. The western world has corrupted and destroyed itself because this model has been too successful for them. We are really at a game reset or a game's end, and a new game is about to emerge.
A student asked: if the success of the western world leads to its corruption and fall, can we generalize that after success people will always fall? And if so, what's the meaning of success?
That's a great question. The first layer is this: wealth doesn't lead to happiness. What leads to happiness is family, love, community, meaning, purpose, and generosity. The happiest people in the world tend to be religious, to have families, and to be very kindhearted. So why do we have rich people? Because the game is structured so that everyone is forced to play. We only care about people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. We worship the rich. And we hate the poor. If you're homeless, we think it's because you deserve it, because you're lazy, because you refuse to work. So the game is set up so that we're all focused on making money.
Then the question is: why do you have this stupid game? And the answer is that in the short term — not the long term, we're talking decades, not centuries — in the short term this game makes your people the most energetic, open, and cohesive, and the most likely to win against other nation states. In the long term, you get destroyed. Your people are corrupted. But in the short term, it allows you to defeat other players. That's how the British were able to create their empire — they defeated the French, the Germans, the Russians. And that forces the other players to play this game as well.
Think of it as a zero-sum game. Think of the Olympics: an athlete going to compete in the 100-meter sprint. We know you shouldn't do drugs because drugs will destroy your body and you could have a heart attack at forty. But one guy uses a drug and he wins. And the other players know about this and are now forced to also use the same tactic. It's a really unfortunate system in that it can only lead to the unhappiness, corruption, and immorality of people. But people are too concerned about short-term rewards. If you don't play this game, you get eliminated. And it's also the same thing as rich people: to get rich, they will sacrifice their children's happiness, they will sacrifice their own happiness. But they believe that this will lead to happiness in the future. It won't, but they believe it. So that's the great tragedy of this game. Next class, we'll look at how the American Empire changed this game by adding the US dollar to it, making it universal and easier to play, and then we'll look at how capitalism conquered the world.