In order to vote, you had to own land, thus proving that your wealth was above a certain threshold, that you belonged to the land-owning class. The United States was founded as a plutocracy. Their dependence on foreign lands and resources was ultimately more expensive and risky than even their richest elite could maintain. The fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans changed Venice, Genoa and Florence from merchant empires back into plain old cities. The Italian city-states of the Middle Ages were plutocracies, and in many ways they ran the show in medieval Europe. After Hannibal's 15-year occupation of much of Italy, the Third Punic War was won by the Romans and Carthage was completely destroyed.
For hundreds of years, the "elected" kings largely came from just two families - two rich families, of course. Early kings of Carthage were military leaders, and the crown was generally available to the highest bidder. It was the center of Phoencian civilization after Tyre, the former center, fell to the Babylonians. With the advent of nation states after the agricultural revolution (since somebody had to control the source of irrigation water and the distribution of food between growing seasons), political control was always dependent on personal wealth.Ĭarthage is a good example of an ancient plutocracy. We can see forerunners of plutocratic states, though, in native societies which are run by so-called Big Men, tribal leaders who obtained and maintained their position by means of flagrant and competitive demonstrations of wealth. There weren't always state governments, because there weren't always states.
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