1. Drifting Apart
Why Nations Fail - Chapter 6

2. Drifting Apart
• How Venice Became a Museum
• Roman Virtues - Roman Vices
• Diverging Paths

3. How Venice Became a Museum

4. Off to a Good Start
• Nation of seafarers
• located in the middle of
the Mediterranean
• Economic innovation...

5. Commenda
• Joint-stock Company Importance:
Gave aspiring
• Two People: entrepreneurs a shot
to rise in society
1. fronts the capital
2. accompanies the
cargo

6. Venetian Political
Structure

7. Great Council
• Most powerful political body
• Made up of the wealthy elite: judges,
aristocrats, etc.
• 100 new members nominated each year
• Nominated other committees

8. Council of Forty
• Appointed by the Great Council
• performed various executive and legislative
tasks
Ducal Council
• Elected along with the Doge
• Ensured the Doge could not gain absolute
power & obeyed the Great Council

9. Doge
• Governor of Venice
• Selected by a committee appointed by the
Great Council

10. Committees
The Great Council also appointed several
committees:
• Committee to nominate the Doge
• Committee to nominate new members of the
Great Council

11. Great
Council

12. Council
of Forty
Great
Council

13. Council
of Forty
Great
Council
Doge
Nominators

14. Council
of Forty
Great
Council
Doge
Doge Nominators

15. Council
of Forty
Ducal
Council
Great
Council
Doge
Doge Nominators

16. Council
of Forty New
Ducal
Member
Council
Committee
Great
Council
Doge
Doge Nominators

17. Further Innovation
The Inclusive political landscape led to both
political and economic innovation
• Courts
• Modern Banking Systems
• Bankrupcy laws

18. Creative Destruction
• Finite amounts of wealth,
trade, etc.
• New comers took
business away from the
established elite
• Wealthy council
members are tempted to
abuse their power

19. The End of Inclusion
1286 to 1298

20. Oct 3rd, 1286
Motion to allow
Great Council to veto
nominations is defeated

21. Oct 3rd, 1286
Motion to allow
Great Council to veto
nominations is defeated
Oct 5th, 1286
Descendants of
previous Great Council
members don’t need
confirmation

22. Oct 3rd, 1286
Motion to allow
Great Council to veto
nominations is defeated
Oct 5th, 1286
Descendants of
previous Great Council
members don’t need
confirmation
Oct 17th, 1286
GC appointments
require approval of
Council of Forty, Doge
& Ducal Council

23. Feb 1297
La Serrata - Current
Great Council
members are
automatically nominated

24. Feb 1297
La Serrata - Current
Great Council
members are
automatically nominated
Sept 11th, 1297
Confirmation is no
longer required for
current members and
their families

25. Feb 1297
La Serrata - Current
Great Council
members are
automatically nominated
Sept 11th, 1297
Confirmation is no
longer required for
current members and
their families
1315
Libro d’Oro
(“gold book”) is created:
the official registry of the
Venetian Nobility

26. More Extractive...
• Police force
• Banned Commenda
• Nationalized trade

27. Venice Today:
• “Venice went from an economic powerhouse
to a museum”
• Tourism based economy
• They only make money when others are
willing to spend

28. Was there a flaw in the
Venetian system?
Does our political system
have similar flaws?

29. Virtues
Roma -
Vices

30. Republic to
Empire
Rome’s fall into an extractive polity was a
consequence of this transition.

31. Political Structure

32. Senate
• Held the real political power
• Created by Rome’s first King, Romulus
• Originally comprised of 100 men
• Members were all large land owners

33. Magistrates
• Governed sections of the empire
• Elected only for 1-year terms
• Consequently, it was difficult for any one
magistrate to consolidate power

34. Plebian Assembly
• A collective of Roman citizens
• many were “citizen-soldiers” or small land
owners who fought for the republic when the
need arose and returned home when the
fighting was over
• Created by secession in the 5th century BC
• Elected the Plebian Tribune

35. Plebian Tribune
• Had the power to veto actions by the
magistrates
• Could also propose legislation
• Represented the Plebians to the Senate

36. Slaves
• Rome had many slaves as a result of the
conquest of Europe and other areas
• Slaves have no rights to vote or own property

37. Rome’s Decline

39. Science Time!

40. Ship Wrecks
&
Ice Cores

41. Shipwrecks
Roman economic progress can be tracked by the web of
sunken ships around Europe and the Mediterranean

42. Carbon Dating
• Scientists are able to determine the relative
age of the ship by carbon dating the ship or its
contents
• 20 Roman ships have been been dated as far
back as 500 BC
• Greatest count peaks around 180 ships but
then declines

43. Greenland Ice
Cores
• Scientists can measure pollution throughout
history by sampling hundreds of feet of Ice
• Starting around 500 BC there was a distinct
increase in pollutants
• The increase was much higher than levels in
the periods both before and after

44. Back to
History

45. Augustus
• Strengthened the aristocracy against the
common citizen
• Created the Pretorian Guard - a standing
professional army
Emperor Tiberius
• Abolished the Plebian Assembly and
transferred its power to the Senate

46. Land Distribution
• As the empire expanded, wars were fought
farther away and lasted longer
• Soldiers couldn’t maintain their estates and
support their families
• Wealthy members of the senatorial class
absorbed small land plots as they were
abandoned
• The rich got richer...

47. Tiberius Gracchus
• Belonged to a long
established aristocratic
family
• Member of the Plebian
Tribune
• Opposed the aristocratic
majority and pushed for
land reforms

48. Tiberius Gracchus
• Went back and forth with the Senate,
attempting to form a commission to investigate
• Tried to get reelected to the Tribune
• Clubbed to death by his cousin and thrown in a
river...

49. “Coloni”
• Agricultural workers reduced to a semi-servile
status
• Discussed extensively in Roman legal
documents like the Codex Theodosanius &
Codex Justinianus
• Landlords were progressively given more
power over them

50. ad 284 to 305
Coloni originate under
Diocletian

51. ad 284 to 305
Coloni originate under
Diocletian
332 ad
Constantine allows
landlords to chain coloni
suspected of trying to
escape

52. ad 284 to 305
Coloni originate under
Diocletian
332 ad
Constantine allows
landlords to chain coloni
suspected of trying to
escape
365 ad
Coloni may only sell their
property with the
permission of the landlord

53. Technology
• State controlled
innovation (similar to
USSR)
• Perfected existing
technologies but never
really innovated
• Works when the state
wants to innovate, but
breaks down over time

54. The Roman Empire
existed for nearly 1,000
years before the it
crumbled.
Is it possible that a
similar fate awaits

55. No one writes from
Vindolanda

57. The Letter
Octavius to his brother Candidus, greetings. I have several
times written to you that I have bought about five thousand
modii of ears of grain, on account of which I need cash.
Unless you send me some cash, at least five hundred denarii,
the result will be that I shall lose what I have laid out as a
deposit, about three hundred denarii, and I shall be
embarrassed. So, I ask you, send me some cash as soon as
possible. The hides which you write are at Cataractonium—
write that they be given to me and the wagon about which you
write. I would have already been to collect them except that I
did not care to injure the animals while the roads are bad. See
with Tertius about the 8 ½ denarii which he received from
Fatalis. He has not credited them to my account. Make sure
that you send me cash so that I may have ears of grain on the
threshing-floor. Greet Spectatus and Firmus. Farewell.

58. England Under
Rome
• Advanced monetary economy with financial
services
• Constructed roads (though they may have
been in a state of disrepair)
• Fiscal system → taxes to pay wages
• Rudimentary postal service

59. The Romans left in 411
ad

60. England Post-
Empire
• For most of history England lagged behind the
rest of Europe and the Middle East
• After the Romans left, the British Isles
deteriorated once more into a backwater
• Despite that, England would go on to become
the first truly inclusive society

61. Is it impossible to have an
inclusive system
Alongside slavery?