Ambitious? yes, impossible? Also maybe yes.. . But nevertheless, my plan with the books is to map each one onto 5 years of John Hawkwood’s life starting in 1360. To date i’ve mapped out the years 1386-93 and today I finished mapping out 1360-1364. So now I know roughly how to begin and how to end. The next hurdle is to map out and detail the years 1365-1384. I’m cross reading 6 main books on the topic. Takes about a week to do 5 years.
My view on the world that we live in is heavily influenced by biological essentialism & nihilismm…. so it doesn’t surprise me that there are broad unchanging themes governing human behaviour and biology. Resource exchange and power are two of them.
Resource exchange happens in all living systems, from the cells in the body to systems populated with bodies. Just as muscle cells signal their need for glucose during exercise, prompting insulin release for energy replenishment, businesses communicate their need for resources in the marketplace. The business owner advertises for a rare component, akin to the muscle cell’s cry for glucose, and the market responds by supplying the component, much like the pancreas responds with insulin. This constant signaling and responding, whether within the body or in economic systems, illustrates how exchange of resources underpins survival and growth at all levels of existence.
Money therefore, is a natural extrapolation of the exchange that’s fundamental to living systems. It’s a means of quantifying trades, a language that describes value in terms of currency. Currency is a resource wild card.
Power can be understood as the ability to control or influence these signals and responses. For example, a muscle cell can only request glucose; it cannot force its delivery. The pancreas, with its control over insulin release, holds the power in this scenario. Similarly, a business owner can advertise a need, but the market – suppliers, competitors, and customers – determine if that need is met. Those who can influence the market, through capital, monopoly, or negotiation skills, hold power. Thus, power becomes the ability to control or influence the exchange of resources.
Ethics, morality, and systems of belief are the tools of division. To garner power you must divide and conquer. It is not morality that defines power. Power defines morality.
Money is a resource wildcard
Money, the quantified shapeshifter; turning dreams to tangible feats.
The spirit of mercantilism swept through Italy during the 1300s creating one of the conditions for the Renaissance. As I mentioned in my previous post, John Hawkwood accumulated enough power and wealth that by calling in his loans, he was able to bankrupt entire cities. A staggering feat for an Essex boy in Italy. I like to think of mercenaries as the ultimate capitalists engaging with power and exchange outside the bounds of morality, justice and ethics. Service rendered to the highest bidder, rather than the most moral cause. Trading life for “coin”.
Money is magic
Money turns desire into reality.
This starkly capitalist approach lays bare the often unspoken truths about power and wealth that underpin societies. It forces us to confront the fact that economic incentives and power often influence decision-making as much as, if not more than, moral and ethical considerations. Divide and conquer relies heavily on subjective interpretations of ideology. It’s much harder to argue over account books. Data, in its uninterpreted form, does not take sides. Stories (like the one I’m attempting to tell) invariably do. How easy it is for visions to become divisions?
During lulls in the 100 year war, left over soldiers banded together into “Free Company’s”, as their primary weapon was called a lance, they were also referred to as “Free Lancers” a term we still use today. Infact, modern day business terminology is peppered with terms that came from military. And rightly so since in both instances one is ultimately concerned with increasing exchange capacity or/and acquisition resources. The rest is brand story.
In business, a company is a commercial organization that sells goods or services. The term “company” derives from the Old French “compaignie” (12th century), meaning “body of soldiers.” “Campaign” comes from the Latin word “campania,” which referred to the level fields outside of Rome where military exercises were carried out. Strategos or strategy, which translates to “general,” is a military term referring to the art of troop leader, command, generalship. ‘Recruit” comes from the Latin “recrescere,” meaning “to grow again.” In the late 16th century, it began to be used in the context of raising a new military force. The term “deadline” has grim origins in the US Civil War, referring to a line that prisoners of war were forbidden to cross with the threat of being shot.
Each of us trades life for money, perhaps for power, always for advantage. Who are we when we can’t hide behind “righteousness”? And who creates the veneer of righteousness on our behalf’s? Money and power are not the root of all evil, but the reflection of the world as it truly is. They’re the mirror that reveals the harsh realities of life, the lens that brings humanity into focus.
Hawkwood left no details that lend themselves to his “why”. He’s an ideological blank slate. I can only guess at his ethical and moral dilemmas. There’s an interesting story about how he solved a fight between two of his men, who were arguing over a woman, by killing the woman. And another about how he fed officials information that led to a rival being executed. He was responsible for orchestrating one of the bloodiest massacres in the Middle Ages, imagine having to plan a methodical three day slaughter of half a town for the church…
I wonder if I should do a character portrait of him next….