Factoids for the weekend plus a contrarian take on hydrocarbons, the real risk with Taiwan, medieval capitalism and the East India Company

Another history infused series of links - I’d especially recommend William Dalrymple’s new podcast on the East India Company and a rare interview with energy historian Vaclav Smil.

Before I dive into the main links here are four amazing factoids that I think are very revealing…

1.       Winner takes all in the world of publishing. “In the Penguin Random House/S&S antitrust trial it was revealed that out of 58,000 trade titles published per year, half of those titles sell fewer than one dozen books. LESS THAN ONE DOZEN. 90 percent o…