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produced by a scrubby, low-hung bush into an expensive but
extraordinarily comfortable cloth. The result was called cotton. But the
Anglo-Saxons invented machines that could spit out this fabric at bargain-
basement costs, and the result sold like crazy.4 The English also perfected
the art of mass-producing pig iron--another substance in worldwide
demand. And the British built an international marketing system on a scale
that boggled the mind, with ships controlling the sea lanes of every major
ocean, and colonial footholds that helped them develop markets for their
merchandise everywhere from India to South America.
While this explosion in British trade was getting underway, a
gentleman on the other side of the English channel championed the
short-sighted proposition that a nation's might depends on military
strength. He made occasional disparaging remarks about the "nation of
shopkeepers" back in the British isles. At first, his military power did appear
to demonstrate that weapons are more important than trade. The skeptic's
name was Napoleon. And he humbled every country he
encountered--Spain, Holland, Prussia, Austria and even Egypt. But
somehow Napoleon couldn't bring the pesky British to their knees. Why?
The English kept piling up profits from the worldwide export of their hot
new goods. And Englishmen were able to plow those profits into two
things: increased industrial innovation; and military resistance to Napoleon.
Napoleon, with his military genius, sailed through one battlefield
victory after another. But in the countries he conquered, he botched the job
of setting industry on the path of innovation. The result: the economies
from which he drew the funds for non-stop warfare stagnated. Workers
and bosses still mired in obsolete technologies could ill afford to subsidize
the little general's exorbitant armies.
Overtaxed populations eventually grew resentful. So when the British
"nation of shopkeepers" finally invaded French-held Spain, the Spanish
population rose up in arms to support the limy liberators. Not long after,
Napoleon was crushed. He had overlooked the fact that military might
vations. Asians had long since figured out how to turn the fluff
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