01-20-2017, 03:32 PM
And yet your 18th century classical liberal economists railed against and fought against intractible medieval feudal bureaucracy that all but strangled trade between nearby towns and districts, and made justice almost impossible with so many different jurisdictions. This was all built on the foundation of successive layers of iron age bureaucracy, from the Greek and Roman empires to the multiple Christian and Muslim empires and bishoprics and jurisdictions and the innumerable feudal obligations to aristocrats and lords. I confess I don't know what you're talking about regarding less bureaucracy after the bronze age. Conditions were a bit more civilized under Greco-Roman influence than under the worst of the Mesopotamian warlords. But I don't think the Christians and Jews would have agreed with you about 1st century conditions under the Roman officials and tax collectors and legions. It was efficient bureaucracy that created the Pax Romana.