It is all about debt.

[shikamaru]

Both are very helpful posts. Thank you.

There is are some very well written books on some of the subjects we've discussed in this thread including "Debt: The First 5000 Years" and "The Lost Science of Money". Any writings by Alexander Del Mar can be included as well.

Couple those with allodial's thread on forgiveness of debt and gavilan's post on history of the fertile crescent makes for a very illuminating picture.

I'd also keep in mind that what we are practicing today started in that fertile crescent (Mesopotamia) and is called the Babylonian mystery system.