History demonstrates that dominance over seemingly mundane but critical resources is a foundational element of national power. The Roman Empire's control of salt and 19th-century America's pursuit of guano (bird fertilizer) laid the groundwork for their military and economic dominance.

Measured by access to consumer goods, wealthier parts of Europe did not regain the standard of living enjoyed by ordinary Romans until the 1700s. A typical Roman owned more varied types of dishes than their 17th-century English counterpart, highlighting Roman consumerism's height.

Romans possessed practical economic thinking. They planned around seasonal price fluctuations and sought profit, but never developed a discrete, systematized branch of reasoning akin to modern economics, lacking an "Adam Smith" to formalize these concepts into a separate field of study.

Societal decline doesn't have to be a painful collapse. A wealthy culture can enjoy a long, comfortable "sunset period" by remaining open to importing technologies, ideas, and services from rising powers. The Byzantium Empire's 1000-year decline was sustained this way. The alternative is isolation and rapid decay.

Openness is a tool for dominance, not just a moral virtue. The Romans became powerful by being strategically tolerant, quickly abandoning their own methods when they found better ones elsewhere. This allowed them to constantly upgrade their military, technology, and knowledge from conquered peoples.

The Romans were masters of making existing Greek technologies, like water-powered devices, bigger and more widespread. However, they were not great inventors of new concepts like the spinning wheel, and their scaled-up technology rarely trickled down to benefit small, ordinary farms.

Elite Roman houses were not tranquil personal spaces. Every surface was intensely decorated, and their primary function was as a venue for business deals and the production of social status, with work and home life completely integrated.

The fall of Rome was primarily an economic and demographic event. A long-term decline in population, starting as early as the 2nd century, combined with massive inflation, broke the crucial feedback loop between consumption, production, and the state's ability to collect taxes.

The Roman Empire lacked modern, impersonal banking systems. "Banks" were typically run by a single family, making the distinction between borrowing from a bank versus from family much less clear. This structure explains the persistence of decentralized, relationship-based lending.