Believe it or not, I have been up since about 5:30am. It feels great. Got the new laptop, and it has been a pleasure to write on for the last 18 hours.
Just have some random military-economic thoughts about Japan this morning. Did you know that in 1500s Japan, commoners were allowed to own land but not allowed to possess weapons and samurai were allows to own weapons but not land? Very interesting. Puts the power to protect property in the hands of those who do not have the property themselves. Removes all power to rebel/defend from taxes on land or crops - property taxes - from those who would pay such taxes. Not quite a state monopoly on deadly force, but the samurai worked for the state most of time around that time period.
At the beginning of the above, and to end the one-hundred year civil war, all commoners were required to surrender their swords. To reduce the friction this would cause, the blades were melted into a giant religious statue. The idea was that this statue would pick up the responsibility of protection and peace-enforcement. Hmmm. Wonder what you could make with seized guns that would fill the same role? Watch out for this idea in the future - or at least the basic concept or giving up weapons but not losing the protection of property and person.
I have several interesting economic ideas about Japanese warfare, but I'll wait a while before writing those.
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