Part of this energy enabled humans to survive,
another part enabled them to multiply. Still another part made it
possible for one portion of the population to live without productive
work on the work output of their fellow creatures. This exploiting
minority was headed by land owners, soldiers and priests.
Landowners built themselves and their dependents strong houses and
castles. Much of the labor power that went into this construction was
"forced." The laborer gave the landlord labor time in exchange for the
privilege of working part of the land for his own support. Soldiers
defended the landlord and joined plundering forays on the territory of
neighbors. The priests, in exchange for sustenance, mollified "higher
powers" and built temples in which the people could gather, worship and
be admonished.
Farsighted, energetic, resourceful men (and women), using mass
productive energy, built themselves castles, built their priests temples
and mobilized serfs, war captives and slaves who worked in gangs for
generations and centuries to assemble the raw materials, construct and
decorate the buildings, and perform the services needed to operate the
enterprises and to provide their owners and masters with the
necessaries, comforts, luxuries.
As centers of civilization grew richer and more powerful they defeated
neighboring peoples, brought some of them home as war captives and
exacted from their defeated rivals promises to pay yearly tribute in the
form of timber, metals, food and often of slaves.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170