Your editor is making his way across the Nullarbor Desert today. In a roundabout effort to get to the UK. And then stay there.
But first, the longest stretch of straight road in the world awaits. 90.5 miles worth.
Financial news and even the budget feel far away out here. Iâve decided to keep them at bay for you.
Today we donât just celebrate the handouts from government, but also from Native American Indians. Itâs Thanksgiving in America.
As youâll discover below, you have more to learn about your future and the future of the country from what really happened at the first Thanksgiving four hundred years ago than from the budget fine print.
So letâs dig into some history.
Why Thanksgiving happened in the first place
In the early 1600s, the English King James the First implemented a religious crackdown in England and persecuted anyone who didnât recognise the Anglican Church.
40 Puritans who had escaped the persecution of the Anglican Church and left for continental Europe decided to make for the New World instead. They didnât want their children to become too Dutch. If only they knew what Americans are like nowâŚ
On 1 August, 1620 they joined 62 others and hopped on a ship called the Mayflower seeking to establish a religious colony based on the Biblical references to the Israelites. They landed on the famous Plymouth Rock (near Boston) and went about establishing a foothold in their new land.
Things didnât go according to plan
Half the pilgrims died of starvation in the first winter. Recent evidence from an archaeological dig indicates the highly religious community even resorted to cannibalism. They may have eaten a 14 year-old girl.
Come springtime, those who pulled through only survived thanks to the kindness of Native Americans. The story of that kindness, expressed as a meal of thanksgiving shared between strangers, is the source of Thanksgiving today.
But those who celebrate Thanksgiving overlook a far more important part of what happened to the community.
One of the features of the new colony, which its merchant financiers back in Europe insisted on, was that everything should be shared. The âcommon storeâ and âcommon shareâ requirement meant that everything from food, homes and land had to be doled out equally.
William Bradford, the leader of the group, soon figured out what was going wrong with the efforts of the community to grow enough food to survive.
Hereâs an excerpt from his journal:
âFor this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.’
In other words, people were lazy because they didnât receive the fruits of their labour. Somebody else did. And when youâre starving, thatâs not a great incentive to work hard.
As soon as Bradford breached the agreement with the merchant financiers and assigned land to individuals, giving them the right to keep their own property, âit made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.â There were pregnant women in the fields alongside tiny children, reaping and sewing.
The pilgrims were quickly growing so much food they could trade with the Native Americans instead of begging. They even managed to repay their debts to the merchants who financed them.
Experimenting collectivism
Ever since, the same experiment with collectivism has failed time and time again. And because food is the most important of goods, agriculture is always the first place collectivism breaks down.
The rulers that be are eventually forced to give up collectivised farming in order to have enough food at all. The moment they privatise farming is what I call the Mayflower Signal, named after the Puritanâs ship.
The Mayflower Signal also went off in cold war Communist Russia in much the same way as Puritan Plymouth Rock. Communist officials couldnât work out why their collectivised farms were failing. Mass starvation ensued. (Even when it wasnât official Stalinist policy.) Eventually, agriculture was gradually privatised.
Chairman Maoâs China experienced the very same signal too. In fact, every government which uses collectivised farming eventually has to change its mind.
These days, there seem to be very few places left with collectivised agriculture. But there are some.
The inevitable failure of collectivism
If you apply the lessons of what really happened at the first Thanksgiving to today, you can see how the world is set to change.
You mightâve foreseen the mess in Venezuela, where the government began to heavily mess with agriculture in 1999. And now shelves are empty.
Europeâs agricultural sector is the core of the European Unionâs budget and policy power. Almost 40% of the EU budget goes to agricultural spending. Itâs intranational welfare that destroys incentives. That in turn destroys productivity and hollows out the industry.
Well, with Britain set to leave, Europe faces tough budget decisions. Will it continue to zombify the continentâs agricultural sector? Or will this be a turning point for Europe â a Mayflower Signal?
North Korean end to collectivism?
North Korea is perhaps the only country left to use true collectivised farming on a grand scale. And the same mass starvation plagues the country as in the Soviet Union, Communist China and the Puritan colony.
But North Korean sources have confirmed this may be coming to an end. Another Mayflower signal went off there a few years ago.
According to the website Daily NK, some farmers are now allowed to rent land from the collectivised farms they work on and then keep 30% of their output for themselves.
The new agriculture policy measures are designed to reduce the same starvation that plagued the American Pilgrims, the Russian communists and everyone else whoâs had a go at communism. The new opportunity is reportedly taking off in much of the country, with individuals renting as much land as they think they can cultivate.
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This incredibly important change didnât get much of a mention in the Western media. It doesnât seem important. Unless youâre aware of the history of the Thanksgiving. And if you are, you know whatâs coming next.
Unless the Americans bomb them. Happy Thanksgiving!
Until next time,
Nick Hubble
Capital & Conflict
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Category: Geopolitics