III. CURBING GROWTH: KINGS AND RITUALIZED WARFARE

 MENU: 3.CURB GRWTH: KINGS & RITUAL WAR

THESE KINGS ARE STATIC AND WEAPONS OR SYMBOLS OF POWER KEEP THEM FROM USING THEIR HANDS

Rulers contain the search for profit and are contained themselves.  

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King of Benin, 16th century

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Emperor of Byzantium, 11th century 

• Kings maintain the status quo 

• Ritualized warfare, barrier to growth 

Both change as economies expand. 

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Next,

III.1.

Kings maintain the status quo 

III.1. KINGS MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO

Menu: 3.1.Kings maintain the status quo

RULERS DOMINATE ECONOMIES, RESTRAIN COMMERCIAL PEOPLE  — AND ARE RESTRAINED THEMSELVES 

The emperor of Mali controls the 14th-century Saharan trade, but he is seated, wears a crown that is huge and heavy and a gold nugget and scepter occupy his hands.

Andalusian map / zoom

In brief

• Kings concentrate wealth, then make it circulate

• In Africa "absurd" succession practices

• Constraints of African kings that Europeans share

• European kings' similar constraints

• Detour: Images of Christ go from shepherd to warrior to king

• Kings change as economies grow

• Commercial peoples' emphasized subordination

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Next,
 3.1.1. 

Kings concentrate wealth, then make it circulate

3.1.1. KINGS CONCENTRATE WEALTH, THEN MAKE IT CIRCULATE

THEY CONTROL COMMERCE AND DISTRIBUTE ITS GAINS, PRACTICES THAT PREVENT THEIR INVESTMENT 

Take Ashanti (in Ghana) or 13th-century Afghanistan:

Otupfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, king of Ashanti photo Mansan Zeida / zoom

Wealth, an aspect of royalty

The Voyage of Marco Polo by V. Chklovski, n.d.

Marco Polo negotiates rubies with a king.

Ways in which kings control economies: In...

• Ashanti (Ghana) the king uses weights that are one-third heavier than others and declares that only kings or men of high rank deal with commerce, "as I do." 

-- Weights, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee by T.E. Bowdich, 1819, p. 298    

--  "As I do,"  Journal of a Residence in Ashantee by Joseph Dupuis, 1824, p. 167

 

• Oyo (southern Nigeria) a hundred wives of the king of trade in salt and natron. Their wares are wrapped in a special cloth that liberates them from tolls and allows them free shelter. 

-- Landers' Discovery of the Termination of the Niger by John and Richard Lander, 1832, I,  p.122.IN

 

• Darfur, "The king is the country's main merchant: not only does he confide a great quantity of his own wares to all of the caravans that go to Egypt, but he also uses his slaves and dependents to sell Egyptian goods in the bordering countries." 

-- W.G. Browne, Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria in the years 1792 to 1798, 2nd. ed., 1806, p. 346.

• Futa Jallon (Senegal) the almamy organizes caravans to the coast; all independent merchants must join, and cede part of their profits to him. In the 1840's he introduces weaving, done by his wives.

• Salaga (Ghana), toward 1890, most members of the royal family are traders.

• Burkina Faso: The Mossi king monopolizes transactions with Salaga.

• Benin: The king sells slaves, ivory, palm nuts and pepper, with agents for other wares. Other merchants must wait until he has finished his trade before they engage in their own. 

• Bornu (Northern Nigeria) the king's herdsmen sell milk to caravans and the ruler al-Kanemi assembles 500-800 slaves under the direction of four eunuchs to spin cotton.

• Waday and Sennar (Darfur) the kings are the main merchants.

-- For these references and others: Aubin, pp. 445-446.

The leaders of the 19th-century theocracies will govern societies that are more commercial and be more directly involved in commerce themselves.

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In 16th-and 17th-century France...

• Monarchs create their own enterprises, which are State monopolies; Catherine de Medici initiates silk production; Louis XIV establishes luxury production and controls major enterprises:

     Louis XIV visiting the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, tapestry after a painting by Charles le Brun, 1673 / zoom  

 

Louis XIV Grants its Privileges to the East India Company, 1664, © India Company Museum, Lorient /  zoom

 

• Royal control slips into narratives: 

• Individuals' search for gain is under the king's authority. It is indirect through the guilds or direct, as when Louis XIV gives his favorite, Madame de Montespan, three pirate ships to raid the Levant. 

-- L'Allée du Roi (The King's Way) by Françoise Chandeneggor, 1981, p. 294.

•  Nicolas Fouquet makes his Brittany fortress a center of Atlantic commerce without informing Louis XIV, an act that hastens his fall. 

-- Le Procès de Fouquet (Fouquet's Trial) by Simone Bertière, 2013, p. 103.

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Suzerains distribute that wealth to retain or gain supporters and maintain the balance between clans, practices that prevent its investment. 

Giving of the booty taken from the Madianite  (C) Musée du Louvre, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Philippe Fuzeau / zoom

Distributing wealth — or not doing so — can indicate stability or change:

• Calling an Anglo-Saxon chief  "ring-giver" means that he is behaving as expected. His society is probably cohesive.

• The sudden appearance of the formula "The Pharaoh gave this" in Egyptian tombs may show that he seizes and distributes wealth, suggesting the need to control a growing economy. 

• France's Henri IV establishes a much more powerful kingship and amasses treasure at the same time (toward 1600). 

•  "The queen is too kind..." is nobles' formula of thanks when Henri's widow, Marie de Médicis, shores up her regency by distributing that treasure. Later she gives royal income to a favori, a sign of growing power. 

"Greedy" kings do not redistribute.

Mention of them usually means that 
their power expands. 

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Next,

3.1.2.

In Africa, "absurd" succession practices

3.1.2. IN AFRICA, "ABSURD" SUCCESSION PRACTICES

-- "Absurd:" Anne Raffenel, Voyage en Afrique occidentale, 1846, p. 280

THEY HAMPER THE RISE OF POWERFUL DYNASTIES BY PREVENTING THE ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH

Lack of recognized heirs encouraged African kinglets to distribute treasure rather than amass it. That changed after about 1800, when growing economies led to stronger rulers. 

But until then...

• On the Senegal and Middle Niger rivers, succession went from brother to brother and since a "vicious principle" extended the term to cousins, it was "impossible that he who governs not be of an advanced age." 

-- Anne Raffenel (mentioned above), p. 280.

• In Futa Toro (Senegal) reigns lasted only two years, limiting the accumulation of wealth.

-- Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique, Amsterdam, 1686, p. 312 and Capitaine Landolphe, Mémoires du Capitaine Landolphe, 1823, p. 55. 

• In Borgu (Nigeria) and in many other regions, succession struggles dispersed treasure.

-- Jacques Lombard,  Structures de type féodale en Afrique noir, Paris, 1965, pp. 289-290, 318-340. 

• Among the Mossi (in Burkina Faso) when a chief died his wives, slaves and horses were sent to his superior.

-- Dakar archives, 1 G 145/10, 1890.

• In many regions, generalized pillaging followed a ruler's death:

-- For Benin (Nigeria) in the 17th and 18th centuries, Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique, Amsterdam, 1686, p. 312 and Capitaine Landolphe, Mémoires du Capitaine Landolphe, 1823, p. 55.

-- For Bonduku and Anno (Ivory Coast), Emmanuel Terray, La Captivité dans le royaume abron in Claude Meillassoux, ed. Paris 1975, p. 408 and Gustave Binger, Du Niger au golfe de Guinée par le pays de Kong, Paris, 1892, II, p. 30.

Burying their riches with the kings had the same effect:

-- Along the Senegal at the end of the 17th century, F.J.B. Gaby, Relation de la Nigritie, Paris, 1689, p. 71. 

 

-- In Atta (on the lower Niger), Richard & John Lander, Landers' Discovery of the Termination of the Niger, II, p. 170.

 

-- In Oyo (Nigeria) rulers' wives died when he did.  Lander mentions a wife who tried to survive (I, p. 112). 

-- More references: Aubin, pp. 473-4, n.148-156.

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Elsewhere? According to legend, an Assyrian king destroys all his property, including horses, wives and concubines, before committing suicide. 

The Death of Sardanopalus by Eugène Delacroix, 1827

To keep them from his enemies? Or to illustrate voluntary destructions of wealth at successions? Legends usually point to something deeper than the immediate drama.

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In Europe having a ruler's eldest child, especially a son, inherit the throne was part of the stronger authority that came with relatively advanced economies (more later). The exception, Poland, was a backwater far from the main centers of commerce.

The studies I know mention succession

only in the context of strife:

Narratives skip anthropology as well as economics.

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Next,

 3.1.3. 

African kings, prestige and constrait

3.1.3. AFRICAN KINGS, PRESTIGE AND CONSTRAINT

CONTROLING ECONOMIES WOULD LEAD RULERS TO EXTEND THEIR POWER, BUT SYMBOLS OF ROYALTY RESTRAIN THEM

-- On constraints' universality:

The Golden Bough, a Study of Magic and Religion by Sir James Frazer, London, 1890.

 Isolation

Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in 1821, 1822, 1823 by Capt. Hugh Clapperton, London, 1826.

The barrier emphasizes the aura and separation of the sultan of Bornu (in Northern Nigeria), while empowering his entourage.  

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Obesity 

• "Large bellies are indispensable attributes for whoever serves the court of Bornu. Those whom nature has not favored compensate with a quantity of stuffing that when they are on horseback, give their bellies the singular appearance of hanging over the saddle." 

• "His death was attributed to his extreme corpulence. His exhausted horse refused to go on.

-- Clapperton, pp. 76-77 (text slightly shortened).  

Obesity is often thought prestigious when food is scarce. 

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Ritual: Though known for his energy, king Gelele of Dahomey is so exhausted after eight hours of parading in noise and dust that he cancels the rest of the festivities.  

-- Richard Burton, A Visit to Gelele, King of Dahomey, 1864, 1966 ed.pp. 186-7

Headdresses

• "Those whose turbans seemed the most carefully arranged were obliged to lean their heads to one side. That of the sultan was largest of all."

-- Clapperton, after the image above.

• Same idea:

Hapi IV, king of Bana (Cameroon), Rois d'Afrique by Daniel Lainé, Paris, 1991

• Less extreme headgear still highlights the king and hinders movement: 

     Charles VII of France, after Jean  Fouquet, toward 1450 / zoom 

     Colbert presenting the Members of the Academy of Science to Louis XIV (cropped) by Henri Testelin,1667 / zoom

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War: Rulers are in the heart of battle but are not allowed to fight — exploits would reinforce them:

• That king who "according to custom was not armed, sat down under a tree surrounded by his eunuchs [...] he calmly awaited his death [...] and was pierced by a hundred spears." 

 -- Clapperton (bold added).

• In Darfur, the army surrounds the ruler "as a ring surrounds the finger." When a king enters a fight nevertheless, his vassals abandon him and say, "All we ask is that you ride with us in the center of the army. We do the fighting [...]"

They strangle him.

 -- Al-Tunisi, Voyage to Darfur, 1845, p. 79.

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Manner: "Kings do not travel as quickly as ordinary men and I must convey you as slowly as possible."  

-- Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger

by John and Richard Lander, London, 1832, p. 257.

French similarity: 

    Louis XIV "had a gait that suited only someone of his rank,

 on anyone else it would have been absurd."

- Voltaire, Le siècle de Louis XIV, p. 413.

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Next,

3.1.4.

European kings' similar restraints