Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

>> Opinions may differ, but Europe's centre of gravity moved north in
>> the High and Late Middle Ages, contributing to the high
>> urbanisation of Flanders in particular,
>
> You are putting the cart before the horse. 'Centre of gravity' in the
> description of the geographics of economy is a figure of expression;
> it describes where the production and trade activity is high; it is
> not a separate force, it doesn't cause anything in itself. The reason
> trade and production moved to the Netherlands from Northern France was
> the building of a road through the St. Gotthard pass in Switzerland
> around 1250. That opened a transport route from the big port on the
> Mediterranean, Venice, through the river Po and Ticino, across the St.
> Gotthatd pass to the Rhine and to the Netherlands and England. Since
> then it was the policy of the French to gain control over the Rhine,
> by expanding France, to control trade once more, which they succeeded
> in doing by taking Strasbourg, which caused the Dutch trade to
> collapse and trade and production to move to England which then became
> the No. 1 enemy of France.

I'm always quite amazed at reading your paranoid approach of France's
history.
I also wonder what kind of importance a road thru the Swiss mountains could
have, when it must have been closed more than half the year because of snow
falls.

A.