All major historical events have direct or indirect economic implications. Especially, according to historic materialism, economic relations between people and the battle between labor and capital, rich and poor, have always been the motor of historical evolution. Yet, among scores of historical issues, there are distinguished facts or periods with an overriding economic character, recognized as such even by the most idealistic schools of thought in social sciences. Not only wars and revolutions but also epidemics, natural disasters or long lasting weather conditions may be some of them. Continuing, from part 1, the examination of history (a period of 2632 years) in line with the Pluto-Neptune movements, I shall try to be as concise as possible, gathering the details in a separate table, which is a simple collection of the relevant examples cited in P. Jenkins' Historical ephemeris. In the table I have omitted the innovations, as well as cases where the political character is preponderant, for example : in 369 BCE * GREECE: Peloponnese Confederation -beginning of end of independent city states- or in 132 BCE, reform movement in Rome, led by Tiberias & Gaius Gracchus. I have also neglected the other planets Uranus, Chiron and Saturn, in order to concentrate on the mutual interaction of Neptune and Pluto exclusively. The marked with an asterisk (*) periods may be considered as having their peak or culmination in the year cited by the author even if they span many decades. The (-) or (+) signs before the aspect denote a waning or waxing phase, respectively. This has nothing to do with the character of the outcome; there are positive mundane outcomes in the waning phases and vice versa.
The results derived from the study of the table are impressive and establish my view of the planetary duo Neptune-Pluto as pillars of human economy:
A. Most economic issues appeared or were accelerated in a time period when a Neptune-Pluto aspect was active.
B. Out of 80 upshots only 12 with no aspects contain major economic facts, for example the 1132-1148 CE period when: * FRANCE: Henry I grants urban charters, supporting artisans & merchants & urban growth, EUROPE: Vladislav II of Bohemia (1140-73) (establishment of towns, bourgeoisie, trades, succession), BYZANTIUM: attempts to cultivate Venetian trade & alliance go wrong alienating Venice, is less important than the following one 1150-1152 when, under a Neptune-Pluto opposition: * EUROPE: rise of larger European trade fairs, rise of the Craft Guilds, Rebuilding of German town Lübeck-origin of Hansa League according to historians, First German Hansa trading ports at Wisby, Gotland & Luebeck, AMERICAS: Manco Capac, first great Inca, establishes Inca Culture, at Cuzco, Peru.
Or the years 1412-1442 when: INDIA: droughts bring famine in N India, ITALY: the Medicis of Florence become papal bankers (rise of large European banking houses), AFRICA: acceleration of European trading & plundering in W Africa (for slaves & gold), with no aspects, are less important than 1450-1484 when, under a sextile: 1450 *AFRICA: European slave trade begins, * EUROPE: General economic recovery & upswing, 1454 S AMERICA: yellow fever wipes out much of Mayan culture, 1455 * N AMERICA: depopulation & decline of Mississippian temple-cities, 1468 * N EUROPE: slow decline of Hansa League (trade shifts to Atlantic, Baltic powers grow), 1473 MEDITERRANEAN: Cyprus taken over by Venice (for trading advantage in NE Mediterranean), 1484 BRITAIN: Richard III K of England (1483-5) (reforms law, taxation & trading rules in England).
C. A continuously repeated Neptune-Pluto trine from 1215 to 1298 ended Medieval times leading the West into the Renaissance. From King John's MAGNA CARTA (permitting aristocratic oligarchy in England) to the start of Houses of Lords & Commons in England (1298) changes are probed all over the word: 1221-31 ASIA: Mongol invasions close Silk Roads, Eurasian traffic moves to Arabian sea lanes, 1238 N AMERICA: Zenith of Mississippian Culture (riverine trading temple-cities), 1239 RUSSIA: Aleksander Nevsky beats attacking Swedes at Neva (Russian national growth), 1252 IBERIA: Castile becomes strong under Alfonso X the Wise (1252-84), 1255 EUROPE: founding of Prague and Stockholm as cities (medieval Euro trade & culture network), first Hansa League formed by Luebeck, Hamburg, Wismar, Rostock, 1260 CHINA: Kublai, Great Khan (1260-94) establishes social welfare, road building, post services in China, etc.
D. A second trine from 1713 to 1792 formed the liberal economic system. From the Treaty of Utrecht, when British gained in colonies & monopoly of slave trade, to 1792, when Denmark was the first nation to abolish that trade, the establishment of British empire, the American and French Revolutions, Potemkin's New Russia, the introduction of first banknotes in England (1718) and the US$ (1787) are only a few markings of a period that gave birth to industrial revolution and capitalism. Napoleon's wars sealed this second period of economic globalization which was revived with the Congress of Vienna (1815) under a Neptune-Pluto square and continued with the mass emigrations to the USA under a Neptune-Pluto sextile.
E. Someone could object that, while the outbreak of World War I happened under a Ne-Pl semi-sextile, the WW II began without aspects between the two planets. Yet, it is generally accepted the Second War was nothing but a suite of the first. Both, by weakening Europe, made the USA the super power of today.
F. For those still unsettled in mind about the correctness of my opinion, here is another table, containing the headings of Glyn Davies's "Monetary History from Ancient Times to the Present Day", which can be found in the web. Except for the periods 1794-1811, 1825-1838 and 1870-1886 CE, which contain some important economic events, the rest of this comparative chronology of money coincides with Pluto-Neptune aspects.
Epilogue
A Neptune-Pluto sextile from Sagittarius-Libra was at work from the end of Wold War II to 1998, during which we have seen the World Bank (1945) and the European Union (1957) founded, the Communist victory in China and the fall of the Iron Curtain, the rise and fall of Asian "tiger economies". The global economic uncertainty which we are in is inevitable in a world where the internationalizing of finances has grown almost to cult proportions.
The sextile will be revived in 2013 through Pisces-Capricorn and accelerated from 2024 to 2034 in Aries-Aquarius.
This means for me that capitalism hasn't yet told its last word. What this world will be is a matter of study which will take into consideration the other slow moving planets.
