[Note:  No, the title of this blog is not a typo.]

For those of us who are students of logistics, one of the wonders of the Mongol Empire in the days of Marco Polo was the trade and communication (including, sadly, the spread of bubonic plague) across Eurasia.  Marco Polo himself was from an Italian merchant family, and spent much of his young adult life as a resident alien within the Mongol Empire of Kublai Khan, serving as a diplomat and traveling around on one kind of official business or another.  His writings about the wonders of the advanced Chinese civilization (which we know today to be accurate) were so unbelievable to his European contemporaries that his books were considered fables and myths.

Empires are harsh and unpleasant regimes, tyrannical even in the best of times, full of exploitation of the masses and the use of force to brutally eliminate dissent and corruption to co-opt subsidiary elites and divide peoples against each other.  One thing that empires do well, though, is create an environment where trade flows from one area to another.  Generally speaking, one does not have the trading of products and ideas from far-flung parts of the world without some form of empire.  Without large enough regimes to either crush problematic nations, eradicate piracy, and ensure the safety of their citizens in international travel (all of which requires power on an imperial level), merchants and missionaries and tourists are at the mercy of petty tinpot dictators and random anarchial acts of violence in every kerplunkistan that exists in this world.  Most people (myself included) aren’t really comfortable dealing with that sort of risk, and most of us even in the safety of nations and empires depend on products that come from said kerplunkistans, and so we rely on the threat of force for our own economic well-being, so we can drive cars and enjoy the fruits of a first world existence.

We ought not to take such things for granted, for such pleasures and enjoyments depend at their base on power.  For trade to flow smoothly those who would wish to do us harm must fear our power enough not to interdict our lengthy and vulnerable supply lines.  Other nations that lack our power wish to be allies in part because being friends with a powerful nation means that they benefit from that protection themselves and for their citizens, serving their own interests.  All too often, we take advantage of the benefits of empire while simultaneously complaining about the costs of empire in blood and treasure, without being aware of the true tradeoffs if either we or friends of ours do not take up the burden of empire.

In the past few weeks the question of logistics within Thailand, and my concerns about the supply chains of my local grocery stories, have led to several musings here [1] [2].  Today, being out of my own personal food supply, I decided that instead of going to the local supermarket whose supply networks have failed me for the last three weeks, I would visit the Makro, which is a moderately long walking distance away from the Legacy Institute, but also a Costco and Sam’s Club like store whose logistical networks may be more robust than that of Topp’s, at least in my judgment.

And so they proved to be.  Going into the Makro, there appeared to be no food shortage at all.  I got as many snacks as I could fit in my backpack (Makro does not provide any bags), about $15 worth, and managed to save a substantial amount of money buy buying in bulk, as it were.  Most of the items I purchased, to my surprise, were labeled as “products of Thailand” despite having ingredients that weren’t really local to Thailand (like strawberries, since I especially love strawberries), though at least one of the items was a product of Indonesia.  The lesson is that there are enough supplies in Thailand but that many companies for their own reasons are hoarding supplies or not shipping them, suggesting that it is the networks and not the supplies themselves that have been failing due to the flooding in Bangkok.  This has been duly noted.

In the meantime, though, it is a lot more pleasant to ponder on matters of logistics when one does so on a full stomach, even if one has had to schlep said food supplies about two kilometers in a backpack on a fairly hot day.  Supplies are supplies, even if one has to work a little to bring them back to one’s own supply depot.  At any rate, it is good to know that at least one local company has a good supply network, as it means they will be getting a lot more money from me in the future.  I’m not someone who takes logistics and supply chains for granted, after all.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/if-life-was-more-like-a-game/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/start-your-day-off-right-with-a-food-shortage/