Many years ago I heard a story that there were 2 armies/countries that were going to go to war. In order to find out whether or not their enemy was going to attack them during the following winter, the leader of one side sent spies to the enemy's market to see if lamb meat was significantly cheaper than normal. The reasoning behind this being that if lamb meat was relatively cheap then this probably meant that the enemy was slaughtering more sheep than usual, which might indicate that they were using the increased amount of wool collected to make more winter clothes for their army for a wintertime invasion. This is the classic example of intelligence collection and analysis that always comes to my mind.
Is anyone else out there familiar with this story? Does anyone have a reference anywhere to the full story? Was it actually lamb meat? Was the savvy leader Ghengis Kahn? Is the story actually about the Greeks? The Romans? Was it Theucydides? Homer? The Iliad? The Oddyssey?
-thanks!
2006-08-12 19:15:49 · 3 answers · asked by nada 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I don't have an answer for you but I found your history to be very interesting. In a similar view I once read a book about Welsh coal miners in the 19th century. It was a terrible occupation. One family tried to escape by becoming bakers. They learned to hike to a remote spot where they could see down to the ocean and a pier where the ships would come to load up the coal. They realized that many ships meant more production in the mines which meant workers would have more money to spend on bread. This way they could prepare their output to match the increased future sales.
Coming forward to modern times I just now read a report on medium and high end video cards for computers. The article mentioned that one brand has been dramatically lowering their prices in the last few weeks. To a casual observer that would seem to indicate a willingness to compete with their major competitor. However, the author of the article said that past history has shown that when this happens it usually means the company is about to release a new product and is cleaning out the old inventory.
Intelligence gathering is always important. Those that have it tend to come out ahead of those who ignore it.
2006-08-12 19:30:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very interesting, and it makes sense but sorry have not heard this story before so can't help.
2006-08-12 19:25:37 · answer #2 · answered by atlantisflicka 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Okay, that was very long. Please don't post something like this again.
2006-08-12 19:18:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋