Power Politics: Ancient vs. Modern?

Question

Most theories, it seems, suggest that economic superiority proceeds political superiority. But I can't help but notice a striking difference between Ancient and Modern times in relation to this theory.

When I think of power politics in modern times I see countless examples of a new or existing state that suddenly gains and economic edge which is a precursor to later political gains. Take the unification of Germany and Italy. The modernization of Japan and the USSR. The rise of the British Empire.

But in ancient times the story seems to be reversed. Rome, compared to the territories in the East it conquered, was relatively poor and backwards in almost every field. Likewise when Rome collapsed it wasn't to a more economically superior competing state or coalition, it was scattered waves of poor Germanic and Central Asian tribes. Macedonia and Alexander the Great were similarly poor and backwards compared to their victims the Persian Empire.

Anyone have some insight?

Answer 1

Before industrialization most of the people were subsistence farmers, and the small surplus produced was taken by the ruling class. To increase wealth was to gain control over more people and the surplus they produced, so conquest produced wealth. In modern times military power and wealth comes from better technology and productivity.
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2007/11/21/last-2000-of-growth-in-world-income-and-population-revised/
Shows that the net wealth in the world increases around the time countries were able to permanently defeat barbarisms because of technological advantages, which also produce a wealth advantage, a little more than 500 years ago.

Answer 2

The reasons Rome conquered weren't quite the same, they were uncivilized but masters of war and simply because the romans were more disciplined made them superior, the use of discipline was made clear by the romans and echoed through to the world's armed forces then making discipline (in future wars) not the element that decided wars

Answer 3

How could economic superiority precede the rules of commerce, which require an advanced political superstructure?

You've got Germany exactly backwards, it seems, for this reason.

Answer 4

I think it's situational, based on the priorities of the intersecting time and place. A merchant in Florence at the genesis of the Renaissance could accumulate substantial wealth through trade, but his "new" money didn't necessarily grant noble status.

Answer 5

wow....that's deep, I don't really know.