“If you want to see where you are taking the most risk, look where you are making the most money.” ― Paul Gibbons, business adviser.
Much in the way that people in the inter-war period referred to World War I as “the war” or “the great war,” most financiers in the years between the global financial crisis and Covid-19 called the former simply “the crisis”.
Now, we have to be more specific.
Religious scholars traditionally agree on 33AD as the official date that the historical Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under the order of Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. What is less well known is that this was also the date of the first ever recorded economic crisis, which almost brought the entire Roman economy to its knees.
It all started when trading firm Seuthes & Son, an important Alexandria spice trader, lost three well-laden shipments in a hurricane half-way through crossing the Red Sea. Soon afterwards, another wealthy firm at Tyre, Malchus & Co., suddenly became bankrupt after its Phoenician workforce went on strike and the embezzlements of a freedman manager caught up with the company.
