Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2026)

nomic growth. However, feudal landed gentry had its we have today is a Europe that, in some important re- own asset: serfs, and the ability to whip them up in envy spects, functions more like a Hanseatic League than a of nearby Hanseatic towns. While a single sailor can carry Venetian single-entity dominance model.

many times more cargo than a serf, on land a serf with a Just like the Hanseatic League, in the European Union— gun is no worse than a sailor with a gun. and NATO—there are misguided efforts at freeloading,

This instability contributed to the demise of many overplaying one’s hand, and even moves to secede, along city-states and the creation and consolidation of nation- with lots of bickering. But as long as they stick together states in both the South and North of Europe. and work together, everybody in the league bene