ABSTRACT
Since recorded time, food has been about state-building and about wealth. Rulers have justified the centralization of power through promises of protection, not only against hostile attacks, but also against famine. A major way to centralize power is to centralize control over land and labor, and the most direct link between land and labor is food. As for wealth, it is only the useful objects [that it affords] its holders. Numbers recorded in accounts and portfolios can evaporate as easily as they were entered. Bluntly, there is no wealth without food.
