Creative destruction, private equity and the making of the modern world | Jack Weatherford | Ep 79
Anthropologist and best-selling author Jack Weatherford, whose landmark book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World reshaped our understanding of history, joins Ross Butler to explore how the Mongol Empire fused creative destruction with long-term institution-building.
Far from being merely conquerors, the Mongols built one of the earliest global systems of commerce, meritocracy and capital allocation.
Jack explains how Genghis Khan dismantled corrupt elites, elevated artisans and merchants, and empowered women as investors through ortōq partnerships—private trading ventures that echo modern private equity. Ross describes Genghis Khan as the world’s most effective asset owner.
The discussion connects thirteenth-century portfolio thinking, religious tolerance, census and tax innovation, and technological transfer—from paper money to movable type—to the modern dynamics of private markets. What can investors learn from a society that turned warriors into shareholders and empire into enterprise?
This episode blends anthropology, finance and ethics to show why creative destruction only endures when creation wins.
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