Every Empire That Ever Existed Had One Thing in Common

The Real Monopoly Isn't the Product

There is a pattern that repeats throughout history with an almost irritating precision. The century doesn’t matter. The technology doesn’t matter. The language in which power speaks doesn’t matter.

Whoever controls the route, wins.

Always.

When Philip II sent his galleons loaded with American silver, it wasn’t the gold that made Spain the dominant power of the sixteenth century. It was that no one else could cross those routes without permission. The distribution channel was the Atlantic Ocean, and Spain held the keys. Later, the British understood the game better than anyone.