Page 225 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

3 – Passive niches;

4 – Parasitic niches.

Green – the positive and creative niches of the economic system;

Yellow – the ballast niches of the economic system;
Red – the negative or destructive niches of the economic system

New economic niches appeared in basic categories. Handicrafts and arts began
to develop tremendously fast. Trade got even greater development. Despite the fact
that trade is an activity of a certain group of people necessary and useful for a society,
it can turn into a weapon of enslavement in someone’s “able” hands...

Feudalism gave the opportunity for the number of active economic niches to
grow due to the increasing number of handicrafts. New technologies appeared, prac-
tical science developed stormily, new and more sophisticated tools were created.
Manual labour was gradually replaced by machinery. Along with masters-
individualists, group production appeared, when a lot of people take part in the crea-
tion of one product. Pretty quickly this kind of production caused the division of la-
bour, when a certain person executed one and the same task which did not result in
the end product, but only in an intermediate one. The division of labour resulted in
the considerable improvement of the quality of merchandise and made it considerably
cheaper and, therefore, more accessible to a greater number of people, which, un-
doubtedly, influenced the efficiency and productivity of the farmers’ labour.

Relatively cheap and high-quality products of group production gradually began
to oust individualists, who were however, able to preserve those active economic
niches which were related to the manufacture of the highest quality products or, in
some places, small items. The best example of this kind is the production of an elite
weapon made of Damascene steel; the production secrets of which masters kept se-
cret and passed from generation to generation, to their children, and in the case of
their absence — to chosen apprentices in whom the master saw a creative spark. Very
often these trade secrets were lost with the death of their carriers…

2.20. The economic conditions for social parasites to capture

Midgard-earth

In most cases a group or industrial production was located in towns. Gradually
the active economic niches were divided into two basic subcategories: one related to
the production of foodstuff and another related to the production of objects of utility
and tools. The first sub-group of the active economic niches was mainly concentrat-
ed in the country, while the second sub-group — in the town. Although the produc-
tion of food remained important, the second sub-group (the industrial (group) pro-
duction) began to occupy a dominant position among the active economic niches.

In its turn, the city industrial production was gradually divided according to the
type of production activity. Inside industrial economic niches several types of indus-
trial production appeared: the production of the means of production (machine-
tools, smelting furnaces, etc.) the production of instruments of labour and the

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