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The Value of Turnips
A few years ago, in 2013 to be precise, I created a tale about turnips and money. I came across it again recently and thought it deserved a re-post. I should say that Abi-Eshu, who is the protagonist in this story, is a fictional character from Ancient Mesopotamia, circa 3500BC. (Not to be confused with Abi-Eshuh, the 8th king of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon who reigned for 28 years from c. 1648–1620 BC or 1711–1684 BC) Abi-Eshu bears no relation to any living person – or does he? Do read on! A friend of mine came back from a London seminar this week, with some startling facts and figures.…
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Cabbages and Fresh Cream (or Abi-Eshu and his Dream)
If Abi-Eshu were here today, he would no doubt be astounded by our dependence on the internet. He would balk at the amount of time we spend on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and the rest. Email and Snapchat would be something he could not even begin to understand. The ease with which we communicate with one another these days was not even dreamed about back in *Abi-Eshu’s day. Or is that so? Circa 3500BC Abi-Eshu has been to market in the cart his father, Abi-Karu, has built. The cart rolls along on Abi’s latest invention, the wheel. On his outward journey, the cart held 4 reams of fine cloth, woven…
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The Value of Turnips
A friend of mine came back from a London seminar this week, with some startling facts and figures. Apparently, the UK was happy to borrow and borrow in the years leading up to the recession, racking up debts to the tune of 1.5 trillion pounds in 2009. Dennis Turner, Chief Economist for HSBC, told his audience that the real issue was the spending and borrowing before the recession. Well, yes, this would make sense. If we’d not borrowed, we wouldn’t owe would we? It would seem we are good to lend to as we pay back our debts and are deemed to be a ‘safe’ country. We don’t riot –…
