Description
Wars are expensive, both in human terms and monetary ones. Since at least the 1640s, in the aftermath of the British Civil Wars, the phrase ‘blood and treasure’ has sought to encapsulate these costs.Two economic notions, in particular, feature in this book: incentives and institutions. A rational look at incentives explains even the most seemingly irrational behaviour – and few things are as irrational as war. This book examines why Genghis Khan should be regarded as the father of globalisation, how New World gold and silver kept Spain poor, why some economists think of witch trials as a form of ‘non-price competition’, how pirate captains were pioneers of effective HR techniques, how handing out medals hurt the Luftwaffe in the Second World War and why economic theories helped to create a tragedy in Vietnam.
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