On Mercenaries – And Those Who Rule With Such Supports: Take #2

I have been using the word “mercenaries” often in my last few posts: first, for the East India Company’s Indian Army that “mutinied” in 1857; and then for the soldiers of both the Indian Army today as well as the Central State’s “paramilitary forces.”  

Today, I shall discuss the employment of mercenaries in the context of what is wrongly termed “Political Science,” while it is in fact nothing but History.

REPUBLICANISM is History – from the “city-states” of Ancient Greece to the Hansastadte all the way to modern Geneva. And in between lies the brief historical episode of the Italian City States – an epoch best viewed politically through the works of Niccolo Machiavelli. It is in his classic The Prince that we find an entire chapter devoted towards the examination of the merits and demerits of ruling with such a hired force of arms – which he does not recommend at all – and in a wonderful recent biography of his titled Niccolo’s Smile I discovered that he personally went about recruiting local militia for the purposes of defence, preferring them to mercenaries because they would fight for their own cause – that is, their city, their properties, and their liberties. Mercenaries, on the other hand, would surely desert when the going got tough.

The Swiss Army today is entirely such a local militia. Which is why no European military force has ever had the guts to attack their country. The atmosphere in Geneva just before WW2 was declared – and immediately after – is best described in the following extract from Margit von Mises’ Memoirs. I have quoted it earlier – to explain why Hitler required spies:

The Swiss immediately prepared for the worst. The Swiss are a peace loving people. For three centuries they have lived in harmony with three neighbours, three languages, and three religions. They have an excellently equipped, small modern army, a sort of standing militia. Every Swiss citizen has to report for military duty once yearly, and the general feeling is enthusiasm for peace and a hatred for aggression.

She continues to then record how refugees from all the occupied countries soon streamed into Geneva, how all hotels and apartments were full, and then she writes:

But along with the newcomers came Hitler’s spies. The atmosphere, once so tranquil and peaceful, was now filled with rumours. Fear touched everyone. The Sunday excursions to France had to stop. We also avoided going to restaurants for dinner and taking afternoon tea in the beautiful gardens by the lake. One did not know who might be sitting at the next table to overhear the conversation. Friends met at private houses, where as early as September, 1939, dark shades had to be installed and not a gleam of light was allowed to show through the windows.

As far as the Honourable East India Company is concerned, their mercenary Indian Army was most certainly never used for what is today called “internal security” – as with the Indian Army in Manipur and Kashmir, and in the case of the 200+ battalions of Central paramilitary forces. 

Never! 

It was used in “battles” proper – the wars against Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Marattha Wars, the Sikh Wars – but at all other times it was just the “bluff of force” that was used to deter belligerence on the part of any local ruler. 

The one and only “misuse” – or even “abuse” – of the Company’s Indian Army was the disastrous Afghan War conducted by that disaster of a “peer” Lord Auckland, sent to replace the Great Charles Metcalfe. Just as with Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, one can only speculate on what might have been had Metcalfe remained.

Just goes to show that History is about such unique, non-repeatable individuals in particular times and in a particular milieu, who have to be “understood” because, as they say, Individuum Est Ineffabile – while Theory is applicable to all times, places and peoples. Marxists confuse and confound the two – as with everything else. Do read my impression of the Marxist historian from JNU Romila Thapar’s latest edition of The History of India in this recent post.

Getting back to the Company and its mercenary Indian Army – it was officered entirely by Brits; and, in time, they came to appreciate the “martial qualities” of several types of Indian soldiers – Mahars, Jats, Rajputs and, most famously, the Gurkhas. The Gurkhas still fight for the British Army – as they did when Mrs. Thatcher battled for the Falklands – but they are never used INTERNALLY within Britain. And therein lies a great difference, indeed – in what is best called “the nature of political rule.”

In all these instances, the martial qualities were "hired." This is what the term "mercenary army" means in politics. Even today, in India, whenever the Army organises a "recruitment camp," it is the poorest, who are also physically tough, who arrive - and battle it out to get nothing much more than "a job."

It is very different with standing militia of citizens.

Very different, indeed. 

In my online publication on “civil government” I have included the entire extract from Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat in which he describes the scene at Runnymede in 1215 when the Magna Carta was signed – and I have done so specifically because Jerome wrote this as “literature especially for schools.” What Jerome makes crystal clear is that the “lawless” King John was “protected by French mercenaries.”

Jerome also says that the merchants of London provided the velvets and other rich cloths used to decorate the barge that stood at the banks of the Thames to carry King John and the barons to the riverine island of Runnymede – and yes, the then Lord Mayor of this Olde City, William Hardel, was on the “committee of barons” authorised to “raise the nation in revolt” if the monarch failed to abide by the terms to which he had signed. By then, the “institution” of Lord Mayor of London was over thirty years old, so Hardel must have been around the twenty-fifth to hold this title – and this title “Lord” was never given to the mayors of this olde city by any “Royal Letters Patent.” The CITIZENS gave their mayor the title “Lord.” And this ancient city, which has preserved its civic independence and almost all its traditions and customs, employed a “police” only about a decade after Peel set up the UNARMED BOBBIES of the London Metropolitan Police.

Similarly, in Frankfurt-am-Main – once a freireichstadt – a jolly good fellow they call “The Bob Dylan of Germany” showed me a lovely old building that once housed their bürgermeister’s own police - called hauptwache - and which was now an elegant café, while the cops came from the capital of the Federal State of Hesse, empowered with legislation from Bonn (then) and Berlin (now).

You can see the hauptwache of old Frankfurt alongside - with many thanks to Google Images.

 

The fiat paper euro comes from Brussels – a “foreign country” inhabited by Walloons and Flemings, who speak different languages and have difficulties getting along in a tiny nation-state with one king – and over 200 brands of excellent beer!

Strange goings-on, indeed.

Brussels today must be crawling with EUSSR bureaucRATS – including ECB bureaucRATS – and I do believe the ordinary Walloons and Flemings of this tiny nation, all these excellent brewers, would be infinitely better off under an International Gold Standard and Free International Trade.

As would we – by IMPORTING their beers and EXPORTING our gold.

Then, there is “the other path” – the Highway to Hell – that Angela Merkel, in particular, is pointing towards: that all EU member nation-states get their National Budgets “vetted” by these EUSSR bureaucRATS in Brussels, and the rest of the world move towards a New International Monetary Order based on the same fiat paper bullshit by strengthening the IMF and World Bank.

I am on the side of PRIVATE MONEY.

And I am extremely happy to read that the Catalans are trying to secede from their rulers in Madrid just as the Scots are getting out of their union with England. This recent article on “Secessionism in Europe today” was very heartening to read as well.

Germans today ought to look back at what their nation was like in Goethe's time - as mentioned in this earlier post: 

From the Treaty of Westphalia and until the Napoleonic wars, Germany had consisted of some 234 “countries,” 51 free cities, and about 1,500 independent knightly manors.

I also recommend Hans-Hermann Hoppe's article titled "Goethe on National Greatness" - to the people of all nations, including especially the various "nationalities" of the Indian sub-continent.

The question does arise: Why was the “civil government” of a Private Company infinitely superior in MORAL terms to that of Crown-in-Parliament?

The answer lies in nothing but the MONEY – and in their “initial purpose,” which was to EXPORT GOLD while importing spices to sell a huge profit. Perfectly “honest means” towards perfectly “honourable ends.” They called it “John Bull Capitalism.”

When Clive was awarded the diwani of Bengal by the Grand Mughal in Delhi – the rights to collect land revenue – there was intense trepidation within the Court of Directors back in London. They did not know whether these new powers and responsibilities would bankrupt them – or add to their wealth. So they treaded very carefully as the first districts came under their administration. Within years, America seceded from the British Crown – and they were even more chastened by that. Of course, in that very same year The Wealth of Nations made its appearance – and this instructed them on the “rightly understood interests” of both the Indian people as well as themselves, as these two quotes from that period show:

To make the people of that Country consumers of the manufactures of England we must first make them rich… the real interests of both Countries are the same.

Lord Ellenborough to Lord Bentinck, 1829

If we wish to render the Country opulent, and the people happy, our great aim must be to establish Security of Person and Property.

The Governor-General Lord Cornwallis to the Honourable Court of Directors on the Permanent Settlement, 1793.

Within years of the above minute from Cornwallis, a completely separate “covenanted civil service” specially trained in classical liberal political economy was established – and, for the first time in its History, portions of this sub-continent began receiving the blessings of “civil government” and what lies at its foundation: JUSTICE.

In other words, Liberty and Property.

The districts then were many times larger than they are today – and the “collector” heading it “collected taxes” in exchange from a PROPERTY TITLE. His “work” consisted entirely in “resolving disputes” – which meant visiting actual sites, making inspections, measurements, and maps, while also interviewing witnesses – which resulted in accurate records. With accurate records, “land revenue” flowed AUTOMATICALLY into his coffers – and his subordinates looked after that sitting in headquarters. He himself was almost always “on the saddle.”

There was no other way by which a PRIVATE COMPANY that did not employ printing presses to issue fiat paper money could “finance” their civil government. 

But the other good thing that people forget – because the socialist Indian State teaches History wrongly – is that the Honourable Company was proud of the fact that they taxed the people LESS than their predecessors! 

Not only that, the revenues collected were INVESTED in solid CAPITAL GOODS: “roads, bridges, and canals.”

Further, their district officers WORKED - unlike their predecessors, whom they considered to be "lazy, Asiatic chiefs."

And so the people slowly became wealthier and wealthier, more and more properties came to be owned by them, all well protected by the Company – and the New Civilisation came about, bringing with it a New Culture as well, which meant a slow as well as BENEFICIAL “westernisation” of those exposed to western education, life in the new cities, the “social clubs,” and all that: the race courses, the golf clubs, and CRICKET, of course.

The “National Socialism” of the CONgress has virtually DESTROYED all this.

Dhotiwallahs!

   

Getting back to the real topic under discussion – the employment of MERCENARIES – neither in the districts nor in the cities were such forces ever employed by the officials of the Honourable Company. District officers always went about without any “armed escort” – and were usually unarmed themselves. There are plenty sketches to be seen of them leaning against a tree, smoking a pipe, while settling land disputes right on the spot. All very friendly and peaceful. They were “respected” for the very specific reason that their JUSTICE was deemed to be FAIR, which means based on PRINCIPLES, and not ARBITRARY.

Interestingly – or MOST INTERESTINGLY – they were inspired by two very odd works of political philosophy:

First, Plato’s Republic, because they saw themselves exactly as Plato’s “guardian class,” foreigners of a different race, colour and religion who were “specially trained” for their task. The second volume of Philip Mason’s The Men Who Ruled India is sub-titled “The Guardians.”

Second, they were, to a lesser extent, inspired by Hobbes’ Leviathan – seeing themselves as “bearing the body of the citizenry” in each district – while, from Calcutta, a “strong moral influence pervaded the whole” as the political officers and “residents” trained all the rulers of all the Princely States along the same correct principles.

The specific reason for this is also not difficult to find: the fact that every single part of this sub-continent they looked at was “lawless” – and all the rulers were “predatory,” while Justice simply did not exist, everything being completely “arbitrary.” 

Therein lies the vast difference between what the Europeans called “feudalism” – which included not only “civic independence” but also, more importantly, the “discovery of freedom”: PROPERTY. 

In Europe you will find ancient cities and towns all perfectly preserved – because of Property being protected – and they are all very high value REAL ESTATE. 

Not so anywhere in the Indian sub-continent.

When the English came to Surat – and their Ambassador traveled to Delhi to meet with Jehangir, all he saw on the way was that life here was literally “nasty, poore, brutish and short.” 

In Delhi, he found intrigue and corruption – amidst fabulous wealth. 

Clive found even more of the same – by which time the Mughals were in terminal decline. 

Bengal was “lawless”: suttee, female infanticide, superstitions, exploitation, ignorance – along with insecurity of life and property.

There were the thuggee looting and murdering travelers everywhere.

The same was true of the areas inland of the island of Bombay – and the Maratthas were “predatory.” 

In fact, even after Shivaji, the Marattha chieftains who set up on their own – the Holkars, Scindias, and Gaekwads – were predatory to a fault. 

It was British “instruction” on the Principles of political economy, including TAXATION, that converted them into “model states.” 

Little Leviathans – but not “republics.”

The same applies to all the small Rajput chieftains – the “thakurs” of even smaller principalities – who knew not much more than to “get onto their horses when the harvests were done, unsheath their swords, gather their henchmen – and proceed to TAX.” 

They knew NOTHING of the “principles” by which economy and society flourish – agriculture and trade, taxation, capital accumulation, law and justice.

NOTHING. 

Then, when they too learnt what exactly their “rightly understood interests” are that the “strong moral influence pervaded the whole” – and this was how they looked upon their very own Leviathan, which comprised so many “little leviathans” all over the vast territory.

Thus, after the Sikhs were defeated, the Lawrences found Punjab equally “lawless” – and as the quote contained in this post shows, even the “defeated Sikh army” was PREDATORY! I am quoting it again below only in order to contrast the “moral sense” that guided the actions of the Company’s civilians then, after which I shall proceed to look at the KNOWLEDGE-PROOF bureaucRATS who misrule India today: 

The Afghans had ceded Bannu to the Sikhs but neither had ever administered this high desolate valley, where every man went armed and no one had ever willingly paid a tax. Every three years, the Sikhs sent an army to punish the Bannuchis for their failure to pay tribute….

The time came to send out another of those punitive expeditions. Sir Henry Lawrence agreed, but on condition that a British political officer went too and tried to make a peaceful settlement. The Sikhs smiled and agreed; Herbert Edwardes set out, the only Englishman with an army of Sikhs, recently defeated. He was not even in command. But he began by enforcing an order that the army must pay for everything.

This transformed the situation. The Bannuchis were astonished by an army that did not plunder; they came and talked. They sold provisions to the army. Night after night, they came to Edwardes’ tent and sat talking to him…. When he came the next year for three months, he achieved miracles. They dismantled their forts; they agreed to pay a reduced land revenue and he began a field-by-field survey that would lead to an accurate assessment. Finally he decided that they needed a legal code, and wrote it one night. He turned it into Persian next day and made a beginning of administering his code single-handed. The Political Adviser became judge as well as financier, tax-gatherer, commander-in-chief, engineer and legislator – Moses as well as Napoleon.

          Even Edwardes himself seems hardly to have realized quite how miraculous his achievement was. He was alone among these people who obeyed him because of the certainty with which he spoke to them, because of the intensity of his moral fervour…

    

It is indeed a “study in contrast” – how the “collector” of land revenue who took his tax “in exchange for a property title” has been converted into the DISTRICT SPENDER of the BUDGET-MAXIMISING IAS bureaucRAT!

Fiat paper money INLFATIONISM lies at the root of this “moral degradation” – the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934.

Today, there are no Property records and titles – and no Liberties, either. The following extract from the 6^th Five Year Plan, which dates back to the mid-1970s proves it – and nothing has changed since. All these are nothing but the “pious intentions” of our central planners:

A systematic programme would be taken up for compilation / upgradation of land records…. In states where the backlog is heavy….
Sixth Five Year Plan, Government of India, Planning Commission, para 9.100 (iii) p. 115. Emphases added.

 

Thus there is MASS POVERTY even in the old British Cities, which are all unlivable, with ghastly overcrowding, filth and disease – while there is widespread social unrest on all sides, including all the forests and jungles, even: PUBLIC DISORDER.

There is extraordinarily unjust and expropriative TAXATION.

And a STAGGERING DEBT BURDEN atop it.

The entire State-owned banking sector is in CRISIS. And the RBI has today REDUCED the "pooled reserve" which their member banks have to keep with their "lender of last resort"!

All the empty rhetoric is about WELFARE: “education,” “job creation,” and “direct cash transfers” to the poor using electronic methods, even!

There have been ZERO INVESTMENTS in “roads, bridges and canals” in all these decades of “independence” – which is why everyone is now “dependent” on the State!

The economy is in collapse – in a very poor country – amidst extraordinary and utterly senseless “legislative interventionism”: the other source of SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION.

And, to top it all, we find the “EMPLOYMENT OF MERCENARIES” in order to protect this regime and its elite personnel.

I read somewhere that 2000 policemen guard Manmohan's RESIDENCE! What about all the other VVIPs and then the even more numerous VIPS? Add to these those VVIPs and VIPS protected by cops in all the states?

We can also add SPIES and SNOOPS to this list.

INFORMATION – without any HARD KNOWLEDGE!

Ignorance!

Or tamas – which is even BLACKER.

This is why our lives, properties, liberties and even livelihoods are in such a precarious condition. 

And let us never forget that over 2,50,000 of us DIE ANNUALLY on the unsafe roads, streets and so-called "highways." 

Walter Block's Privatisation of Roads and Highways is dedicated to the 40,000 Americans who die annually in road accidents in that country - where per capita ownership of cars is about the highest in the world!

These socialist-gandhian-welfarist-inflationists have DESTROYED our “NEW CIVILISATION.”

I leave my reader with the concluding lines of Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, his 1000+ pages long magnum opus on this vital science that lies “at the very pith of civilisation,” in the fond hope that these will wake you up – and also prompt you to carefully study this extremely important book, for it ends with a very specific warning of what will inevitably transpire if the “rich treasure” of this science is ignored:

The body of economic knowledge is an essential element in the structure of human civilization; it is the foundation upon which modern industrialism and all the moral, intellectual, technological, and therapeutical achievements of the last centuries have been built. It rests with men whether they will make the proper use of the rich treasure with which this knowledge provides them or whether they will leave it unused. But if they fail to take the best advantage of it and disregard its teachings and warnings, they will not annul economics; they will stamp out society and the human race.

Other recommended readings: 

Of course, Niccolo’s Smile - to know the man, his milieu, and that age; followed by The Prince. 

On mercenary cops, I recommend Richard Adams' Watership Down to adults and children both. 

On the "private provision of security" there is the classic essay by Gustave de Molinari. 

And on how a system of torts can work much better for the security of life and property than our screwed-up "criminal justice system" there is my old column.