mark on Nostr: "The behaviour of Hongwu, the first of the Ming emperors, is an object lesson in how ...
"The behaviour of Hongwu, the first of the Ming emperors, is an object lesson in how to stifle the economy: forbid all trade and travel without government permission; force merchants to register an inventory of their goods once a month; order peasants to grow for their own consumption and not for the market; and allow inflation to devalue the paper currency 10,000-fold."
—Matt Ridley, from The Rational Optimist
Published at
2026-05-17 12:53:43 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "939161ec84d3950b0a1b71f7af802eacfe342f93ee7b820de38d49205ca21acd",
"pubkey": "baa09c021f1ee1b1db17e86c1db0122a47ad2a4dcf52b9139be9edb4eda1c403",
"created_at": 1779022423,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"alt",
"A short note: \"The behaviour of Hongwu, the first of the Ming em..."
],
[
"client",
"Amethyst"
]
],
"content": "\"The behaviour of Hongwu, the first of the Ming emperors, is an object lesson in how to stifle the economy: forbid all trade and travel without government permission; force merchants to register an inventory of their goods once a month; order peasants to grow for their own consumption and not for the market; and allow inflation to devalue the paper currency 10,000-fold.\"\n\n—Matt Ridley, from The Rational Optimist",
"sig": "2909ecda8840046885906ec20481d0b33e97e45d7e25f2ab200d9d8381ab97ee6898e17d41f3399c100137bd6202a0e177fb64f6d25b81b6fcd18cff3d6b10a9"
}