You probably learned this in grade school, but just a reminder, the first American financial empire, that of John Jacob Astor, was founded on the fur trade with Native Americans, the American Fur Company. He drove the previous fur companies out of business. The fur trade was a huge industry in early America.
No reason to annihilate people you're trading with. Weighted for inflation, Astor remains the fourth richest American of all time.
en.wikipedia.org
Map of the Canadian fur trade, including some contiguous forts and depots on the American side.
geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca
I don't have a corresponding map of Astor's holdings, but maybe there is one in the Museum of the Fur Trade.
furtrade.org
Not exactly off topic, I hope, as my point is that our civilization, be it Western or Eastern or anywhere else on the compass, depends on free trade. The division of labor and peaceful trade with total strangers are human things, things we take for granted.
We can all agree with Mary that war is not a Good Thing. But protecting yourself and your own from violence and theft is more than human -- birds do it, bees do it, even chimpanzees do it. |
