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5) Constantine & the Church (4th–6th c.)
Front: Christianity becomes imperial glue; bishoprics map neatly onto trade cities; tithes, relics, pilgrimage flows = new circuits.
Back: A spiritual clearinghouse replaces temple ledgers: sanctuaries become vaults; scriptoria become record offices. Old coastal hubs (Tyre, Sidon, Byblos) stay important under new banners.
6) Islam & the Arabic Script Horizon (7th–10th c.)
Front: Arabic (descended via Nabataean from Aramaic) becomes the book of law across a vast land empire; the hajj centralizes a continental flow; Levantine ports thrive under new rulers.
Back: Land–sea fusion 2.0: caliphates run roads, taxes, and justice; coastal merchants run spice and gold circuits. The old alphabetic lineage carries scripture, law, and contracts same infrastructure meme, new theology.
7) Medieval Maritime Successors (10th–15th c.)
Front: Amalfi, Venice, Genoa dominate the Med; military-monastic orders (Templars/Hospitallers) blend banking, ports, and protection.
Back: Classic Phoenician tactics resurface: cartels of pilots, secret charts, insurance/credit, and choke-point control (straits, islands, entrepôts). Public crusades; private ledgers.
8) Early Modern to Modern “Blue Empire” (16th c. > now)
Front: Dutch VOC, English/British thalassocracy, then global finance. Standardized bills of exchange > central banks > fiat > digital rails.
Back: The company-charter is a legal heir to the port-charter. Offshore havens = new Tyres; narrative management replaces sea-monster maps with propaganda, classification regimes, and IP/secrecy law. Rivals fight on land; the network owns the bottlenecks (shipping, insurance, data, payments).