Simon Black – For much of the 9th century, the Byzantine Empire was on the defensive, fending off one invasion after another.
That all changed on today’s date, September 3rd in the year 863, when three Byzantine armies massed together to crush Arab invaders.
This was exactly the decisive victory that the Byzantine Empire needed to secure its position as the world’s dominant superpower.
They had just shown everyone that they had the biggest, baddest army on the planet. And military power meant world dominance.
That’s how it had almost always been throughout history: whoever had the strongest military was king of the world. They ruled through intimidation.
Then something interesting happened.
Sometime in the 10th century, a few cities in Italy began an experiment that defied convention across the rest of the continent: they decided to become free.
While the rest of Europe wallowed in the feudal system, cities like Venice and Florence offered opportunity for a better life… as long as you were willing to work hard and take some risk.
Italy was truly the America of its day.
One popular innovation in medieval Italy was a very early version of the limited partnership. It was known as a commenda, and it’s still the same basic model that many investment funds use today.