ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATION (NOTE: I’m going to point out the obvio

https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/yuchtman/Noam_Yuchtman_files/rr_draft.pdfTHE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATION

(NOTE: I’m going to point out the obvious for you: that just judaism “tied up intellect in mysticism” such that jews contributed nothing to human civilization despite their literacy; and just as today, islam ‘tied up intellect’ in vast ignorance and superstition deception, destroying four great civilization to date; that the catholic church ‘tied up intellect, resources, and economies. And that just as Constantine’ and Justinian’s purpose was to undermine the western aristocracy in favor of the same persian tyranny that seduced alexander; the church incrementally attempted to undermine the aristocracy and replace it with Persian god-kings. And this is the reason that the church granted property rights to women, and forbid inbreeding: so that they could undermine the land holdings of the great families, and incrementally acquire through a host of schemes fifty percent of the european farmlands. I have come to see the church as the most insidious institution whose few claims of virtue were nothing more than taking credit for what would have occurred earlier had they continued the spread of roman literacy and law rather than church superstition and ignorance.)

–“The Protestant Reformation, beginning in 1517, was both a shock to the market for religion and a first-order economic shock. We study its impact on the allocation of resources between the religious and secular sectors in Germany, collecting data on the allocation of human and physical capital. While Protestant reformers aimed to elevate the role of religion, we find that the Reformation produced rapid economic secularization. The interaction between religious competition and political economy explains the shift in investments in human and fixed capital away from the religious sector. Large numbers of monasteries were expropriated during the Reformation, particularly in Protestant regions. This transfer of resources shifted the demand for labor between religious and secular sectors: graduates from Protestant universities increasingly entered secular occupations. Consistent with forward-looking behavior, students at Protestant universities shifted from the study of theology toward secular degrees. The appropriation of resources by secular rulers is also reflected in construction: during the Reformation, religious construction declined, particularly in Protestant regions, while secular construction increased,especially for administrative purposes. Reallocation was not driven by pre-existing economic or cultural differences.”– Via Tyler Cowen