2026-04-25 15:31:04
…Double-entry book-keeping – John and I believe, with some evidence, that he may well have been the person to bring double-entry book-keeping to the UK from the Low Countries. In turn an Italian invention of the 13th century…
Business exchanges rather than markets – Gresham certainly brought the idea of an exchange or bourse from Antwerp (in turn from Ghent) to England. It really was a radical idea. No phone directory, no advertising, no internet – we used to block of Cornhill with chains so merchants could meet at regular times in the mud and rain to establish ventures, principally voyages, and fund them. The Exchange became more and more populated as the Low Countries fought with Spain. People don’t bring money to a war zone (or a cybersecurity hazard). Thus, it was the vessel into which poured the extensive wealth of the Low Countries and turned London from an outback sheep town of 30,000 at the beginning of the 1500’s to a city of over 200,000 by 1600. Markets for cattle, sheep, produce, chickens, all existed – but a market for intangible things?
1st English Shopping Mall? – Gresham also brought the idea of a shopping mall to England. We have many examples of similar complexes and galleria from ancient times, but not in England. At the time it was the upper floor of his Exchange. The concept of shops not adhering to a physical locality – Bread Street, Milk Street, Boot street, etc. – was more radical than it sounds to modern ears. Amusing then to have England referred to in later centuries as “a nation of shop keepers”.
From Michael Mainelli, here is my original post on Gresham.
The post More on Sir Thomas Gresham (from my email) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-25 12:54:38
Around Hormuz, however, the Portuguese always had to be on guard. Many naturally protected sandy coves (khors in Arabic) practically invited “pirates.” The Nakhilu, or Banu Hula, were Sunni arabic speakers on the Gulf coast of Persia whose descendants still inhabit the Gulf coast of Iran. For decades they set up upocket ports in the many hidden bandars and byways of the mountainous shore and created an underground economy that rivaled Hormuz’s. These “pirates” were a major drain on Portuguese revenue, regularly attacking ships that paid the feed for the cartaz, and docked at Hormuz.
That is from Allen James Fromherz, The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present. From this same book I learned that Milton refers to the Straits in Paradise Lost, but under the name of Ormus:
High on a Throne of Royal State, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind[ia],
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showrs on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit rais’d
To that bad eminence
The post That was then, this is now appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-25 03:31:53
Relatively flat US output growth versus rising numbers of US researchers is often interpreted as evidence that ideas are getting harder to find. We build a new 45-year panel tracking the universe of US firms’ patenting to investigate the micro underpinnings of this claim, separately examining the relationships between research inputs and ideas (patents) versus ideas and growth. We find that average patents per R&D input are increasing, the elasticity of patents to R&D inputs is flat or rising, and there is no systematic evidence of a secular decline in patenting after controlling for research inputs. We then document a positive, significant, and fairly steady relationship between firms’ growth in ideas (patents) and labor productivity. Average firm growth after controlling for idea growth, however, declines. Together, these results suggest that innovative efforts play a key role in sustaining growth that has not diminished over the last four decades.
Here is the paper by Teresa C. Fort, Nathan Goldschlag, Jack Liang, Peter K. Schott, and Nikolas Zolas.
The post Growth is getting harder to find, not ideas appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-25 00:17:29
1. Luis Garicano on the task is not the job. And jobs and the Jevons paradox.
2. The lived experience of aphantasia.
3. Shruti on delimitation in India.
5. Leibniz on symbolic computation, from the unpublished papers.
6. A History of Christian Political Economy, by Ballor and Matson.
7. Michael Tilson Thomas, RIP (NYT).
The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-24 16:52:17
An FT poll of 4,000 workers in the US and UK shows adoption is heavily skewed towards the best-paid workers: more than 60 per cent use AI daily, compared with just 16 per cent of the lower earners.
Link here. Note also that the youngest workers are not those who use AI the most, rather it is workers in their 30s. Men in the workplace are using AI more than women are. A very good piece by Madhumita Murgia and John Burn-Murdoch.
The post Which workers are using AI the most and best? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-24 15:25:08
Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with him. Excerpted (and edited) from a bio:
He is on the business faculty at Catholic University and has a background on both Wall Street and in the startup world, where he founded several companies. His first book, Wanting (2021), has been translated into 20+ languages and is selling more than copies than ever five years in. He is an expert on Rene Girard. His new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine, is out from St. Martin’s June 16 — a theory of how identity gets formed or deformed under conditions of technological social contagion. He has a third book with a major publisher (on “technology as soulcraft”) in the pipeline with a major publisher. He also lived in Italy and for a while was studying to be a priest. He remains a true Catholic, and is the founder and director of the Cluny Institute.
Here is Luke on Twitter. Here is Luke’s home page. So what should I ask him?
The post What should I ask Luke Burgis? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.