(1) Ancient Middle East
The land of the Middle East is located at the intersection of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and has produced Judaism, Christianity, cuneiform writing, and the Code of Hammurabi.
1. Christianity
The Bible is divided into Old Testament and New Testament.
The story told in the Old Testament is: God created the earth and light, and created human beings. There are 7 covenants between God and human beings, but human beings do not believe in God every time, and violate God's warnings. Therefore, God failed human beings, so he redeemed Noah's family who believed in God, and the rest turned into a vast ocean and drowned.
The story told in the New Testament is: Several years later, Jesus, the Son of God, was born, and Jesus came to redeem mankind, but mankind still did not believe in Jesus, so they crucified Jesus.
The core of the Old Testament and the New Testament is: the contract.
2. Cuneiform
Archeology in modern times has unearthed many fired clay tablets, on which there are many symbols drawn with reed sticks. After interpretation by scientists, it turned out that this is a contract for housing lease. In order to prevent nonsense between parties A and B of the contract, the contract was written on the clay board and then fired into a hard clay board.
In order to allow people of mixed ethnicities to understand the text on the contract and to unanimously understand the meaning of the contract text, human beings have gradually evolved from pictographic characters to symbolic characters, and even the current symbolic alphabetic characters.
What I am talking about in this passage is actually a contract. Cuneiform writing was prepared for contracts.
The Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi, like cuneiform clay tablets, was inscribed on solid stone and deliberately placed in a sacred temple and made public for all to see.
The Code of Hammurabi records in detail how to sign contracts in commercial transactions, how to confirm the responsibilities and obligations of both parties, and how to make legal rulings and punishments if disputes arise.
The code of Hammurabi was engraved on a hard stone and deliberately placed in a sacred temple. When I talk about this passage, I am actually talking about a contract.
(2) Ancient Greece
1. Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, in addition to gods having supernatural powers, gods, like humans, have fame, fortune, power, money and sex. In China, gods are sublimated from human beings.
In Greek mythology, each generation of god-kings (such as Zeus) had to kill his father, cut off the natural blood relationship and the relationship of benefit and grace, and be independent and self-reliant, and finally became king. In Chinese culture, loyalty and filial piety are emphasized-loyalty to the emperor and father at home and filial piety to parents at home. Killing one's father is the greatest treason.
2. Greek city-states
Greece is a hilly country, just like North Korea and Afghanistan. Even in modern times, even a powerful industry such as the United States cannot unite and conquer Afghanistan and North Korea. Not to mention that it was even more difficult for the ancient Greeks to unify and conquer the people on the land of Greece.
Therefore, there are many city-states in Greece, and there is no affiliation between the city-states, and they are all equal.
All adult men (except slaves) in the city-state vote collectively. In order to prevent people from being deceived by people who are good at observing words and deceiving people, Aristotle, a Greek university scholar, specially wrote logic, so that everyone can learn to think independently and criticize logic, so that they can cast a sacred vote.
And before voting, people must be gathered in the large square in front of the temple to make public speeches to gain support. And also need to do mutual debate. Even if the voting is completed, a long period of publicity is required. If someone has objections, it still needs to be revised.
3. Greek Science
Science was born in ancient Greece, but science was useless in ancient Greece. But scholars in ancient Greece believed that science is the beauty, the essence of the world, the code left by God to mankind, and science is a common way for human beings to communicate with God. This brain circuit is incomprehensible to us Chinese. In China, what is useless and inedible is just...
I talked about three things in ancient Greece, but there is actually one core: equality.
(3) Ancient Rome
The Romans lived on the land of the Italian-Apennine Peninsula. This land, like Greece, is dominated by mountains and hills, so it is also an independent city-state. This provides the basis for the feudal and state-building mechanism, so the courtiers of my subjects are not me. The culture of courtiers, this is a typical distributed power mechanism, so this is in line with the later branch-business department mechanism in Europe and the United States, which means that department managers in Europe and the United States have real rights, responsibilities, and subordinates are called department managers. For the boss is true. This is different from China's pyramid power structure and the mechanism in which department managers do not have personnel and financial rights.
The Romans also improved the Greek political system, establishing the Senate and the Caesar system. The Senate is responsible for the daily operation of the country internally, and Caesar is responsible for the external affairs. If there is a foreign enemy invasion, if it can be defeated, it will be fought, and if it cannot be defeated, it will be negotiated diplomatically. At the beginning, Caesar was a temporary position, and was only temporarily elected when there were foreign enemies. But after the war ended, the position of Caesar was about to be withdrawn, so Caesar, who had enjoyed the taste of power, was of course unwilling, so he kept fighting and expanding to continue to maintain the position of Caesar.
Rome was later destroyed by the Ostrogoths, a tribe among the Germanic people, and the Germanic people gradually evolved into civilization after hundreds of years. The Germanic people, the French and the Germans, once regarded themselves as the Roman Empire. Later, the Eastern Roman Empire in what is now Istanbul, Turkey, also collapsed. The nobles and scholars of the Eastern Roman Empire fled back to Western Europe and even fled to the British Isles, which promoted the later glory of the United Kingdom. It was the Roman Empire, and later the American colonies established by the British became independent as the United States of America, and they also called themselves the New Roman Empire.
The so-called Roman empires in these different historical periods all followed a common political characteristic: the Senate and the Caesar model. So everyone sees that the President of the United States and the cabinet, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the top minister of the cabinet are actually the Secretary of State-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and each of the President of the United States wants to expand abroad and start a war. Now everyone understands the logic.
When I talked about ancient Rome, I actually talked about one thing at its core: organizational governance structure.
(4) Renaissance
The ancient European aristocrats, like the ancient Chinese aristocrats, liked to support Qing guests when they had money. For example, the Four Great Gentlemen of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in China said that Mr. Mengchang claimed to have three thousand diners.
European aristocrats have money and also support idlers, which means that they are not nouveau riche, but gentlemen, elegant, and socially responsible. Therefore, the three masters of the Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelo Giron were all donated and funded by the Medici family, the tyrant of Florence, so that they did not have to worry about survival and gave full play to their talents in painting art.
The core essence of the Renaissance is: after the long Middle Ages, the gods who were pushed to the position of gods, just like ancient Greece, turned back into humans again, so that the gods still have the same fame, wealth, power, money and color as humans. So when you look at the paintings of the Renaissance, they either focus on the dialogue between humans and gods, or the gods are doing things for humans, or they are real people’s living conditions, and even Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings deconstructed the human skeleton and muscle diagrams , are all written to this extent. That's why the renaissance-god man stepped down from the altar, which triggered the subsequent religious revolution-scientific enlightenment-democratic and equal revolution.
Until now, when it comes to nobility, it is still donation, and when it comes to gentleman spirit, it is still the habit of tipping. We Chinese don’t have the habit of tipping. We always feel that Europeans and Americans have a strange way of thinking about tipping. I’ve already paid for your room and meals, so why should I tip your waiter? Isn't it right for you to change the sheets and serve the dishes for me?
Only when you regard the waiter as an equal person, you feel that you have to pay for his contribution.
(5) Spain
In ancient times, technology was backward, so making business in the stormy sea was a matter of narrow escape. However, the roads between Europe and the East have been blocked by the Turks. The nobles who fled back to Western Europe from the Eastern Roman Empire still wanted to enjoy Eastern spices, silk, tea, and fine porcelain. What should they do? Under the heavy reward, there must be a brave man. Thus, the great voyage began.
But who dares to fund a narrow escape. So, the Queen of Spain took out her private money and handed it over to Columbus to let him try sailing. Columbus did not find the East, but found the New World of America by mistake, and brought back a large amount of gold and silver, slaves, and local specialty tobacco, making a fortune. So Spain became the first hegemon in Europe in one fell swoop.
This is a typical venture capital investment, either you lose your money, or you make a lot of money. This is called venture capital.
Therefore, having tasted the sweetness of venture capital, this trend has been retained in Europe. Even when the world's first joint-stock limited liability company was established in the Spanish territory of the Netherlands, it was a public offering of shares to raise funds. Major shareholders formed a board of directors, and the board of directors selected and appointed professional managers with rich experience to form an economic management committee and set up a stock exchange. Shares are freely transferable. You see, the world's first joint-stock limited liability company is like this. This is not the same way as we Chinese start a business and run our own business with our own pockets.
Later, European and American business organizations even referred to European and American political organizations-separation of powers, forming the separation of powers of the board of directors-economic management committee-labor union, which is corporate governance. Our ancient Chinese political system did not follow this pattern, so the corporate organization system is not easy to form like this.
(6) Great Britain
1. The Glorious Revolution
The country of Britain was established on the British Isles far away from the European continent. The aboriginal Celtics, later the Romans came and occupied them but left soon (because they had to go back to fight for the throne), and then the Vikings came and robbed them. A wave went away quickly, and it was not stabilized until the Norman Duke of France occupied it, but it was not strong enough to form a unified one. Moreover, the Duke of Norman was also worried that his territory in France would be robbed by others, so he stayed in France all the year round, so the British territory has actually been operated daily in the hands of the British nobles. This is essentially the same as the division of labor between Caesar the Conqueror of the Roman Empire and the daily operations team of the Senate. This is a habit that the Roman Empire has continued for thousands of years.
Because the Eastern Roman Empire was the founding emperor Constantine the Great officially promoted the unity of government and religion, and Constantine the Great first claimed to believe in Christianity. In Christianity, there is monogamy. In China, however, there is a system of monogamy, multiple concubines, and legitimate sons and concubines. However, in Europe, which was heavily influenced by Christianity in the Middle Ages, children born to concubines were not called bastards, but illegitimate children, and illegitimate children could not inherit the throne. This also led to the whole of Europe. If the queen can't give birth to a son, the throne will be transferred to other branch families, so the throne has always been in a false state in Europe. Many British kings in the past are actually French and German. They can't even speak English, and they haven't even been to England in their lives. How can they have real power?
Modern Britain has its origins in the Glorious Revolution. In the Glorious Revolution, the local British nobles drove away the king, invited back the king's daughter and son-in-law, and let them govern together. So you look at the UK, it has always been a small government.
Because the king's daughter married the governor of the Netherlands. Before the great voyages, the Netherlands was a territory of Spain. During the time of the great voyages, it became the light of Spain and became a sea coachman. Therefore, the Netherlands has a habit of mercantilism. This habit was later popular in England because of the implementation of the queen and king of the Netherlands. So you can see that the first modern economist was the British Adam Smith. He believed in full market competition, competitive game + intellectual property protection, and formed a social and natural professional division of labor.
So you can see that the second modern economist is also British, named Ricardo, who studied business in the Netherlands when he was young. He said that Adam Smith's theory has loopholes: in a limited market, if there is sufficient market competition, it will enter into a natural professional division of labor at the beginning, but it will definitely enter a dead end in the end. Everyone will enter vicious competition in order to survive and continue to grow. Only the unlimited market-global open production and circulation can delay the arrival of the final round of vicious competition.
2. The First Industrial Revolution
In 1709, Queen Anna of England issued a decree, which was the world's first law on the protection of intellectual property rights, which recognized that not only tangible private property is sacred and inviolable, but also intangible intellectual property is personal private property and sacred and inviolable.
Therefore, Watt obtained the steam engine patent, and others could not just imitate Watt's steam engine prototype. That's why others were forced to buy Watt's patent rights.
Therefore, Watt bought shares through patents, turned patents into commodities, and eventually became a millionaire, which started the world's first industrial revolution. Since then, Britain has become the world hegemony in one fell swoop.
(7) United States
1. The Mayflower
After the great voyage discovered the New World of America, many people from various European countries traveled across the ocean to America to pan for gold, including thieves, criminals, speculators, and desperate people. Therefore, when the United States traces its history, it often does not start with these people, but avoids this history, but starts with the Mayflower.
Because the passengers on the Mayflower were not speculators or gold diggers, these passengers had no worries about food and clothing, but their beliefs were different from the political views of the British authorities, so they were persecuted and forced to wander to the Netherlands. But the United Kingdom forced the Netherlands to drive away the Puritans, so the Puritans were unwilling to surrender even if they wandered again, so they took the Mayflower to the New World.
And before the Mayflower docked, the adult men on board imitated the ancient Greeks to formulate a contract in a collective referendum, which is the "Mayflower Convention." This reminds me of covenants in the Bible.
Second, the founding of the country
The United States was originally a paradise for free colonists from all over the world, and everyone lived freely. It's just that the British wanted to increase taxes on the American colonies, so the colonists shouted: All people are created equal, and there is no taxation without representation. Thus began the War of Independence.
After the Revolutionary War, people in each colony still went back to their homes to continue their daily lives. There is still no desire to create a country, and people are afraid that if they do, it will probably become Britain in the future (you will end up being the kind of person you used to hate), so no one wants to build a country. However, to fight the War of Independence, a lot of money was borrowed from foreign countries (France), and the issuance of national debt also borrowed a lot of money from the common people. An organization needs to be responsible for repaying this national debt. Therefore, under such a background, people were forced to meet together again to discuss how to collect the minimum amount of taxes and then repay the national debt and loans as soon as possible.
Therefore, the United States initially established a federal government to collect taxes to repay foreign debts and national debts, and was forced to establish a national organization, and the people who designed the federal government were afraid that the federal government would become as hated as the British government in the future, so they restricted the responsibilities and powers of the federal government everywhere. The legal system is used everywhere to limit the federal government from collecting high taxes.
This has resulted in a small government in the United States and a big society. Many responsibilities are assumed by society (chambers, associations, labor unions, churches, communities), and many responsibilities are fulfilled by private enterprises in society. China is a socialist country, so it presents the form of big government, big state-owned enterprises-small society-small enterprises.
3. The Second Industrial Revolution
The second industrial revolution centered on electricity (electricity + household appliances) and the third industrial revolution centered on information (information communication transmission network and computers) both took place in the United States.
I have said in the past several prerequisites for innovation:
1. Innovative talents and innovative culture: Innovative talents must be diversified and not single-minded. Innovative talents must get together in clusters to communicate and collide with each other instead of being inseparable from each other. Innovative talents must think independently and criticize logically instead of copying what others say. The United States was originally a colony formed by the people of European countries in the New World, so when people from all over the world came, they became Americans, and they debated openly and fiercely like the ancient Greeks, and criticized logically (rather than sophistry).
2. Investment entry: Innovation is a narrow escape, so unlimited money is needed. Therefore, the United States has established the world's most developed capital market (normalized registration system-market-making system, short-selling system-normalized delisting system), attracting global capital (family trust fund-venture investment ABC round-PreIPO round-listing), all the way Support innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises until they are launched to the market. This is completely different from the game between the central and local tycoons and the three generations of riches, and the limited development of the capital market in socialist countries.
3. M&A exit: As I said in the past, the United States, like the United Kingdom, recognizes that personal tangible property and personal intangible property (patents) are sacred and inviolable. Therefore, American companies cannot copy and can only compete with each other through differentiated innovation. If your own company is weak in innovation, you can only make up for it by acquiring innovative companies, innovative patents, and innovative talents. Therefore, capital mergers and acquisitions in the United States are very frequent. Moreover, entrepreneurship in the United States is driven by venture capital, just like the establishment of the world's first joint-stock limited liability company. There are no psychological barriers to mergers and acquisitions, so I happily accept the contracts that mergers and acquisitions need to fulfill. Chinese people pay their own money to start a business. They regard the enterprise as their own children and their heavenly father. They would rather have a chicken head than a phoenix tail, a piece of jade rather than a tile. Selling the enterprise is their own failure and their own shame.
4. Daily escort: Innovation is a matter of life and death, so innovative talents can become millionaires if they do well in innovation, and other things that they are not good at can be handed over to professional managers, consulting companies, accountants and auditors firms, so that they can be consulted beforehand Company planning, solidification of IT companies during the event, and audit by accountants and auditors after the event. China's corporate governance structure has not been formed: venture capital-board of directors-economic management committee-labor union, so the entire industrial chain (business consulting company-corporate IT company-accounting firm) is not developed in China.
5. Cold-start customers: someone needs to pay for the achievements of innovative enterprises. Just like the United States, the United States advocates full market competition-patent protection-natural social division of labor. Everyone actively uses innovative methods and tools to enhance their core competitiveness, and Americans pay attention to equality for everyone, so they will actively buy innovative small businesses. results. This is different from the license economy of ancient China's salt and iron theory - well-connected households conveying favors to the benefit chain - joy and anger are invisible and secret transactions.
