Anthropologist and best-selling author Jack Weatherford, whose Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World redefined how we view empire and innovation, joins Ross Butler to explore how the Mongol world prefigured today’s private equity model.
When the Mongols swept across Eurasia in the thirteenth century, they destroyed old orders, but they also built new ones. In this conversation, Jack Weatherford explains how Genghis Khan combined conquest with institution-building, creating a meritocratic system that elevated productivity and aligned incentives in a way that modern investors would recognise.
We discuss how Mongol queens managed ortōq enterprises, private trading ventures that resemble early forms of private equity, how religious freedom became the first international law, and how the empire’s census, taxation and communication systems created transparency across continents.
As the empire matured, Kublai Khan’s experiments with paper money, movable type and naval technology expanded global trade and spread ideas that helped ignite the European Renaissance. The discussion links thirteenth-century portfolio thinking to today’s private markets, showing why creative destruction only endures when creation wins.
0:00 Creative destruction and leadership
1:26 Learning loops, humility and meritocracy
3:56 Parallels with private equity ownership
10:22 Building value through safety and trade
15:02 Census, taxation and the power of numbers
16:21 Queens as capital allocators – the ortōq system
19:19 Religious freedom as economic policy
26:59 A family-office view of the known world
31:49 Kublai Khan’s operating model
37:36 Paper money and the limits of fiat
45:02 Global trade and early financial flows
46:05 Europe’s asymmetric gains from knowledge transfer
52:13 Technology recombination in warfare
58:12 Naval trebuchets and siege innovation
1:01:27 Horse economies and resilience
1:05:22 Genghis Khan’s Western intellectual legacy
1:08:16 Enduring principles for modern investors
Jack Weatherford is an anthropologist, historian and author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and The History of Money. His work explores how ideas, trade and governance evolved across civilisations and how they continue to shape modern institutions.
📘 Read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644
private equity, private markets, Fund Shack, Ross Butler, Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan, creative destruction, history of finance, financial history, ortōq, family office, meritocracy, value creation, governance, institutional investing, long-term capital, wealth management, portfolio construction, alternative investments, anthropology of markets, economic history, private equity podcast, private markets podcast
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Ross ButlerFounder and Host Fund Shack
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