Both Elizabeth and I hail from paper-mill towns. A few years ago the blue collar-redneck-good-old-boy logging town Elizabeth grew up in (Springfield, Oregon) found itself very interested all of a sudden in building sushi bars and trendy, high-tech fitness centers. Why? Sony Corporation seriously considered the town as a new factory headquarters site. Like every other economically struggling small town, the prospect of a large employer coming to town with deep pockets and wide wants encouraged the community to vigorously court this big corporation.

This same courtship dance has been going on all over the world for millennia. During those culturally and physically harsh centuries known as the Middle Ages or medieval period, small villages and even large towns could be wiped off the map by a…