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goethe42 posted:So, because most (if not all) of those gentile, unwashed, plague-ridden peasants defaulted and the moneylenders thus lost their money, they asked for outrageous interest rates just for fun/to make it more interesting, but lend the money they knew they wouldn't get back anyway? If there were no such thing as bankruptcy, and instead you could essentially become indebted to a creditor for life, I think you'd find that lending anyone pretty much anything they want to borrow would be pretty lucrative. The idea is that over a person's lifetime, they'd eventually pay back how much they originally owed, and top of that they would still in debt and paying you something for the rest of their lives.
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May 24, 2013 17:04
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Weren't there cases of slavery/serfdom caused by debt throughout the Middle Ages though?
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May 24, 2013 17:11
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goethe42 posted:So, because most (if not all) of those gentile, unwashed, plague-ridden peasants defaulted and the moneylenders thus lost their money, they asked for outrageous interest rates just for fun/to make it more interesting, but lend the money they knew they wouldn't get back anyway? The general theory of money lending is that you charge interest according to the risk of the investment. If someone's a sure bet you don't charge them much since you know you'll see it back. If they're likely to default, you could just not loan them money, or you could charge them a whole lot more, so that those who pay back the huge fees make up for the ones that default. In systems that impose legal limits on how high rates can go, a lot of people just have no credit. Without those limits, if you're going to make three times your investment on people who do pay back, it doesn't matter if you never see a cent from half your borrowers, never mind the ones that pay part back but not all. And of course, even if you're not actively greedy and abusive about it and just make a modest living(however unlikely that is), just to keep your head above water you're still charging exorbitant fees especially to the people who actually are good and pay their debts on time, and no one's going to love you for that.
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May 24, 2013 18:18
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The Case of Poland and the Bathing Jew seems refuted by Spain. Muslim bathing habits were also quite fastidious and Spanish Christians by-and-large adopted them as well. Isolation seems a better example, since Spain was a hub for trade and Poland . . . wasn't.
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May 24, 2013 19:25
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Riso posted:In continental Europe peasants usually did not have any money, so when needed any they went to money lenders. They in turn asked for outrageous interest rates because they knew most, if not all, peasants would default on their payment anyway. For the most part, the peasants weren't a very productive source of money and most definitely weren't where most of the Medieval loans were headed. Because the Papacy had mandated that Christians weren't permitted to lend money, Jews were forced by circumstances into the money-lending trade because of the huge societal gap there. As such, there was a bizarre societal idea of Jews as agents of either the king or the Pope and, indeed, many of the Medieval attacks on Jews were examples of people taking out their frustrations with either Pope or King on targets that couldn't fight back. Indeed, the top rung of society were the ones most frequently taking loans from Jews and were also the people most avidly promoting anti-Semitic slogans in hopes of sometimes just having the moneylender expelled/killed rather than having to repay debts. You can see this en masse in the 1290 English expulsion of Jews from England, where most of the English nobility and even the crown itself were in horrifying debt and getting rid of all of the Jews was seen as the easiest way out of their financial obligations.
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May 24, 2013 20:25
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The Kingdom of Poland had one major river: the Vistula, which emptied into the Baltic at Danzig and through which all trade with Europe happened. At the outset of the plague, The Knights of the Teutonic Order held Danzig and had effectively blocked Poland off from the rest of Europe (the two kingdoms never got along). That's why Poland was spared the Black Plague. rzeszowianin 44 fucked around with this message at 22:07 on May 28, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 22:02
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"Gabon without France is like a car with no driver. France without Gabon is like a car with no fuel..." france_is_secretly_the_worsts_country_in_the_world.png  
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May 25, 2013 11:51
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Patter Song posted:For the most part, the peasants weren't a very productive source of money and most definitely weren't where most of the Medieval loans were headed. Because the Papacy had mandated that Christians weren't permitted to lend money, Jews were forced by circumstances into the money-lending trade because of the huge societal gap there. As such, there was a bizarre societal idea of Jews as agents of either the king or the Pope and, indeed, many of the Medieval attacks on Jews were examples of people taking out their frustrations with either Pope or King on targets that couldn't fight back. Yeah, a surprising number of incidents of European persecution of Jews are connected with irresponsible borrowing by those with more political power than cash on hand. There was no system that would facilitate the financing of wars by monarchs through bonds etc., so they tapped the aristocracy directly with an implicit promise of a share of any spoils, and/or they took out a loan. Protocol 5 fucked around with this message at 12:13 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 12:09
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Trench_Rat posted:"Gabon without France is like a car with no driver. France without Gabon is like a car with no fuel..."  Countries the Franc is still used in
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May 26, 2013 06:40
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ThePutty posted:
The Swiss franc and the CFA franc have nothing to do with the old French franc - basically this is a map of "countries using currency called the franc". A bad map.
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May 27, 2013 00:16
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Compressed Natural Gas stations for vehicle fuel. What are they doing in Oklahoma?
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May 27, 2013 00:55
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Compressed Natural Gas stations for vehicle fuel. What are they doing in Oklahoma? Gonna take a guess and say it might be popular at the source if the source is Oklahoma.
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May 27, 2013 01:29
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Oklahoma is full of oil wells and natural gas is a byproduct of oil production. There's been all sorts of rebates put in place recently to encourage natural gas vehicles in Oklahoma.
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May 27, 2013 03:07
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MrChips posted:The Swiss franc and the CFA franc have nothing to do with the old French franc - basically this is a map of "countries using currency called the franc". The CFA franc was pegged to the value of the French franc.
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May 27, 2013 10:14
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MrChips posted:The Swiss franc and the CFA franc have nothing to do with the old French franc - basically this is a map of "countries using currency called the franc". Those countries (obviously excluding Switzerland) using a currency called the franc is as much a legacy of the colonial period as the military agreements and French military interventions.
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May 27, 2013 10:23
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TheImmigrant posted:The CFA franc was pegged to the value of the French franc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFA_franc
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May 27, 2013 10:26
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Compressed Natural Gas stations for vehicle fuel. What are they doing in Oklahoma? Compressing natural gas.
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May 27, 2013 10:31
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Compressed Natural Gas stations for vehicle fuel. What are they doing in Oklahoma? Home of Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest proponents of CNG in cars. For instance, see: http://www.chk.com/news/articles/pages/1621871.aspx
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May 28, 2013 15:29
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Agronox posted:Home of Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest proponents of CNG in cars. I believe T. Boone Pickens has been on the "natural gas in cars" bandwagon for about a decade as well.
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May 29, 2013 03:08
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vickser posted:I believe T. Boone Pickens has been on the "natural gas in cars" bandwagon for about a decade as well. He's since moved to wind I believe.
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May 29, 2013 03:28
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computer parts posted:He's since moved to wind I believe. He moved away from wind a few years ago because natural gas prices have fallen so much.
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May 29, 2013 03:40
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dilbertschalter posted:He moved away from wind a few years ago because natural gas prices have fallen so much. The "Pickens plan" was always a (somewhat fake) combination of the two. He wants the U.S. vehicle fleet over to natural gas, with some lip service about using sustainables to replace gas turbines to power the grid. I figured it was just a ploy to raise NG demand though.
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May 29, 2013 17:00
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KernelSlanders posted:I figured it was just a ploy to raise NG demand though. It's really an interesting choice; if it weren't for the massive infrastructure costs CNG cars make a good deal of sense. But I'm not sure if it's worth investing in the infrastructure, because who knows how long the natty boom can last.
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May 29, 2013 20:43
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Do CNG cars tend to be more or less explosive than gasoline?
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May 29, 2013 21:37
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I have a question about maps that is politically-loaded, but not a map to share. So in the 1600's/1700's Connecticut and Pennsylvania had conflicting land claims about certain territory, especially the Wyoming Valley. The Royal government sides with Connecticut in the early 1770's and this decision stands until it is overturned about 10 years later by the Continental Congress. Why then do all maps of the American Revolutionary War show that area as part of Pennsylvania? It was Connecticut until 1782.
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Jun 1, 2013 05:01
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These maps were posted in the Pictures thread:Saint Sputnik posted:Some maps from http://mapsontheweb.tumblr.com/ Fandyien posted:Pangea mapped with modern political borders
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Jun 1, 2013 07:04
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Kurtofan posted:These maps were posted in the Pictures thread: Also, who the hell thought they saw bigfoot in Rhode Island, and why is Maryland of all places a bigfoot hotspot?
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Jun 1, 2013 08:23
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I'm quite a fan of Alternative History maps, would some of the more exceptional works be okay to post here?
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Jun 2, 2013 00:25
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Plenty were posted earlier on in the thread.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:41
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Eiba posted:That bigfoot/booze map seems odd... it lists Massachusetts as a state where beer and liquor are sold anywhere, but I work in a grocery store in Massachusetts and have to routinely explain to folks from out of state that Massachusetts doesn't sell alcohol in grocery stores. Iowa is also colored as "liquor at specialty stores only", but liquor has been available in grocery stores for maybe 10 years, and it was expanded to convenience stores and other retailers in 2011 or so. I think their source for state liquor regulations is just painfully out of date.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:52
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Hypothetical map for "regions" in a united Europe. Regions are constructed to each hold roughly 10 million people, and are drawn based on nationality and "neatness".
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Jun 2, 2013 03:23
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The Narrator posted:Hypothetical map for "regions" in a united Europe. Regions are constructed to each hold roughly 10 million people, and are drawn based on nationality and "neatness". Uhhh. No Bosnia? Georgian Pontus? Uber Bulgaria? I think Burgundy is almost in the right spot.
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Jun 2, 2013 03:37
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 This is a survey map from the good people at the Alternative History Discussion Board. and China!  PrinceRandom fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jun 2, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 03:39
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The Narrator posted:Hypothetical map for "regions" in a united Europe. Regions are constructed to each hold roughly 10 million people, and are drawn based on nationality and "neatness". Finally, we Eestis are recognized as a part of the Scandanavian Sphere, not lumped in with those filthy Balts!
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Jun 2, 2013 03:50
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Mister Adequate posted:Finally, we Eestis are recognized as a part of the Scandanavian Sphere, not lumped in with those filthy Balts! Someone somewhere... WANTS to be finnish?
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Jun 2, 2013 03:59
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Mister Adequate posted:Finally, we Eestis are recognized as a part of the Scandanavian Sphere, not lumped in with those filthy Balts! Hah. Finnosphere is exluded from scandinavia. Also, where is the Samistan? They should get most of the north scandinavia & finland.
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Jun 2, 2013 09:18
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jammu posted:Hah. Finnosphere is exluded from scandinavia. jammu posted:Also, where is the Samistan? They should get most of the north scandinavia & finland.
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Jun 2, 2013 11:02
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I'm also fairly sure that neither Ireland nor Scotland have ten million inhabitants. On the other hand, it's good to see Greater Flanders! They gave us Brussels, too? Sure, why not. Edit: just noticed how they made sure to exclude Chechnya and Dagestan from 'United Europe'. Not sure if Russia is going to be cool with that, guys. Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Jun 2, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 12:08
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Phlegmish posted:I'm also fairly sure that neither Ireland nor Scotland have ten million inhabitants. On the other hand, it's good to see Greater Flanders! They gave us Brussels, too? Sure, why not. Seems pretty Anglo-centric. Ireland and Scotland are their own countries, but Denmark and Norway are obviously too small to exist independently. Also enjoying the fact that Baden gets Alsace.
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Jun 2, 2013 14:14
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Mu Cow posted:Seems pretty Anglo-centric. Ireland and Scotland are their own countries, but Denmark and Norway are obviously too small to exist independently. It seems like map isn't supposed to be about hypothetical political borders so much as national borders, and without political borders there really isn't that great a case for calling the North Germanic Scandinavians members of different nations.
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Jun 2, 2013 14:27
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