Sunday 8 March 2015

And These People Have Jobs ... BBC Jobs!

Idly tuning into BBC2 yesterday I encountered of programme on the history of lighting, in which our hero recounts (inter alia) the story of sperm-oil lamps.  This involves telling us about the United Company of Spermaceti Chandlers of Nantucket (1761) which attempted to establish what he describes as "one of the first ever monopolies".

First ever ?  Pardon me while I get up off the floor and reach for my sources.
The term "monopoly" first appears in Aristotle's Politics. Aristotle describes Thales of Miletus's cornering of the market in olive presses as a monopoly (μονοπωλίαν) ... Under mercantilist economic systems, European governments with colonial interests often granted large and extremely lucrative monopolies
An enactment published by Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius was not content merely to proclaim the manufacture of purple an official monopoly but also made a monopoly of the sale of fabrics dyed with blatta, oxyblatta and hyacinthina
At the time of Edward VI the sovereign was accustomed to grant special privileges to his favourites, which constituted a practical monopoly  
Etc etc etc, through ancient Chinese salt monopolies, the East India Company ...  Sheesh.  Is there no such thing as an 'editor' at the Beeb these days?  Still, what would they be expected to know about monopolies, eh ..?

ND

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still, what would they be expected to know about monopolies, eh ..?

chortle!

dearieme said...

Glad to see that the Beeb does manage to recruit some people who attended state schools.

Essential broadcasting...cake making prime time said...

£3.5bn well spent ?

Axe the Telly poll tax

The BBC were the most anti poll tax people in the UK.
Yet they use it every day to collect their pension money.

Sell the whole lot off.

Demetrius said...

There must be a good joke about BBC staff not being able to handle sperm oil stories in all this.

Dick the Prick said...

That really is quite remarkably stoopid.