THE GRANDIOSE DESTRUCTION OF WEALTH, A UNIVERSAL PRACTICE

THE SIMPLEST WAY TO CONTAIN PROFIT: ELIMINATE IT

Spectacular destructions draw in the public, reinforcing authority at the same time. As by:

Competition

When the Kwakiutls, people of the North Pacific, toward 1850 obtain goods by barter with Whites, the clans that control the trade compete by throwing the wares into the sea. The clan that destroys most wins. 

This 1914 movie filmed the last match.

The community watches from the shore. Then all celebrate with a feast and dancing.

Trailer

Pictures from the movie, that is, of the real ceremony

The return

Ostentation 

Nobles disperse their income in horses, accoutrements and arms that they show off in processions that accompany important people, notably the king. People come from miles around to watch processions that break the routine.

       A Royal Army on the March,16th-century tapestry (detail), Renaissance Museum

Dispersing wealth with panache is part of prestige: King Arthur cares "not for gold or silver, but for honor alone," says a Roman envoy whom Arthur has treated with a feast that a full page describes.

-- La Morte d'Arthur

Funerals 

When a Viking chief dies his body is placed in a boat is filled with treasure, put to sea and burnt. Everyone watches from the shore.

The  Vikings by Robert Fleisher with Kirk Douglass, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, 1958.

 Considered ethnographically excellent.

 The movie shows the majesty of the destruction.

Monuments

Ancient Egypt remained essentially unchanged for 3,000 years. Imagine — 3000. 

Because the pharaohs neutralized investible income with monuments so huge that the term "pharaonic" applies to any construction that is over the top? 

That immensity was a constant show of power.   

           The Great Pyramid of Giza /  zoom

 Squandering 

A 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire spends so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that its value drops for a decade, which hinders emerging producers.

Populations watch the extraordinary caravan pass and benefit from the largesse. 

The emperor holds a huge gold nugget in this European map of his time. / zoom

 Deliberate destruction

takes place innumerable ways

 and transforms the meaning of innumerable
customs and events.

*     *     *

Next,

From elders to chiefs to kings