Yesterday's mention of Offa's Dyke may have failed to penetrate or add balance to my attempt to stick it to the rich. The Dyke is a hundred and seventy odd miles through the Welsh Marches from Chepstow in South Wales to Prestatyn in North Wales. It was built by a Mercean King called Offa to make certain he could get his tarrifs from Welsh famers and traders and make sure the Welsh dragons stuck to their own country. Offa built a financial empire, his capital, a place called Tamworth in Staffordshire, was apparently awash with pigs, every household had a drove of them. King Offa was, in short, a Christian, he was nice to his wife, put an image of her on one of his coins, he was totally un-moved by the Beatitudes, it was just business, and, like most rich people, he was about as far as possible from being a poet it's possible to get. A Jeff Bezos of the second half of the Eigth Century, his entire existence was an optimization problem.
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