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Dr. Martin Erdmann
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Dr. Martin Erdmann

Things Dr. Says on Podcasts

The author of books on theology and history

“The sovereign right to issue money had previously been in the hands of a monarch who was at least nominally accountable to his subjects. And that changed with the institution of the Bank of England. All of a sudden, the sovereign right to issue money was permanently transferred to private hands that were accountable to no one. That is mercantilism in its essence.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire “If you open books on the history of economics, you will always read that mercantilism existed between the 16th and 18th century, and then it was outmoded and something else took its place. But the true reality of the matter is it has never ended. It has assumed different modes and different manifestations and different terms, but it has never stopped.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire “The British East India Company had its own military of 250,000 soldiers. No other country in the world at the time, apart from Russia, had more soldiers than that one company.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire

Where to Find Them

Dr. Martin Erdmann writes Geopolitics & Empire . They also write for Musings of the Court Jester on Substack.

Recently: “Dr. Martin Erdmann: Alchemical & Occult Mercantilism as Engine of Globalism” on Geopolitics & Empire (October 2026); “Dr. Martin Erdmann: 1984 & the Elite’s Phony Perpetual Cold Wars for World Federation” on Geopolitics & Empire (May 2026); “Dr. Martin Erdmann: 1984 & the Elite’s Phony Perpetual Cold Wars for World Federation” on Geopolitics & Empire (May 2026).

What They Said

“The sovereign right to issue money had previously been in the hands of a monarch who was at least nominally accountable to his subjects. And that changed with the institution of the Bank of England. All of a sudden, the sovereign right to issue money was permanently transferred to private hands that were accountable to no one. That is mercantilism in its essence.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire

Erdmann has just told the story of the Bank of England's founding in 1694, when a merchant group lent the Crown money to fight France in return for the right to issue banknotes. This is his summary of what he thinks that changed.

Geopolitics & Empire · 2026-10-31 Permalink → Listen →
Geopolitics & Empire
Dr. Martin Erdmann

…them a private license to create money. And that was the key. So these merchants wanted to have that right, that power given to them, that privilege given to them to create money out of thin air, use that money to be loaned to the government and then get 8% interest permanently on that state debt.

Speaker 1

…of the law. And the system, I would argue that the mercantilist system shut it down because he was one of these few people, you know, coming at it from an honest perspective to maybe to help the common folk. And they shut his bank down to continue this arrangement, as you, I think, described.

Dr. Martin Erdmann

Yeah. So just to summarize, the sovereign right to issue money had previously been in the hands of a monarch who was at least nominally accountable to his subjects. And that changed with the institution of the Bank of England. All of a sudden, the sovereign right to issue money was permanently transferred to private hands that were accountable to no one. That is mercantilism in its essence.

Speaker 1

You know, I wanted to ask you, well, one thing to add on that, and then I want to ask you about also the religious spiritual dimension. I know you mentioned your other book, Progressivism, but in this book as well, you also, there are a number of sections where you talk about the religious element…

Dr. Martin Erdmann

Yes. Yeah, the alchemical system never really worked and it was really a religion in its own right. We wanted to, or alchemists wanted to create gold out of base metal. They thought they could come up with the so-called philosopher's stone, which was a chemical substance which would be used to…

Speaker 1

You know what? I've never heard anyone, as you just explain it, visualize it so well. So now that you understand the mechanism, they create it out of nothing. And it's like a ghost. It will, as you say, over a certain number of years, that $100,000 in your bank will literally go back to being…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“If you open books on the history of economics, you will always read that mercantilism existed between the 16th and 18th century, and then it was outmoded and something else took its place. But the true reality of the matter is it has never ended. It has assumed different modes and different manifestations and different terms, but it has never stopped.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire

After the host read passages from Erdmann's book on the return of mercantilism, Erdmann opens by challenging the textbook view that mercantilism was a closed historical chapter. It's his own thesis, offered as an argument.

Geopolitics & Empire · 2026-10-31 Permalink → Listen →
Geopolitics & Empire
Dr. Martin Erdmann

You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me. Thanks for my pleasure.

Speaker 1

…power centers and the private interest of the aristocratic ecclesiastical administrative elites in amassing immense wealth in order to gain even greater power than that was back then. And I think it's nothing has changed. It's still the same today. So I'm handing it back to you. Tell us everything.

Dr. Martin Erdmann

Well, it's a massive book, as you noted. In the German original version, it's even a larger 525 pages or something like that. So it covers a lot of ground. And obviously, we cannot speak about every specific aspect of it. It would be just too overwhelming. But we can hit on the main points of mercantilism. And I think the most important point to mention is the fact that it has never ended. So if you open history books and you read or economic books or books on the history of economics, you will always read that mercantilism was a system which existed between the 16th and 18th century. And then it was just outmoded and abolished and something else took its place, free economy, a free economic system. So it's just of historical interest to us. And it's interesting to read about that particular policy, which was in effect between the 16th and 18th century, but it has no effect on us today. But the true reality of the matter is it has never stopped, has never ended. It has assumed different modes and different manifestations and different terms were used, but it has never stopped.

Speaker 1

And how would you sort of best explain it for people? What is it exactly and why is it bad?

Dr. Martin Erdmann

Correct. Well, you have to understand the whole system and when to see how the whole system, individual components of that system adapted to specific time periods and different cultures, different countries. So it was really a system which was worldwide, but it originated in what we call now the…

Speaker 1

could I just add, and we can go back and forth in time. What you're describing back then, it feels in many ways still the case today. Because as you said, you'd own your home, you wouldn't have to, let's say, pay rent previously. And it's like you have your own business, you work at your own…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“The British East India Company had its own military of 250,000 soldiers. No other country in the world at the time, apart from Russia, had more soldiers than that one company.” — Dr. Martin Erdmann, Geopolitics & Empire

Asked about the abuses of the Dutch and British trading empires, Erdmann describes how the East India Company took over Bengal and pushed opium into China. He uses the size of its army to show how far a private firm could act as a state.

Geopolitics & Empire · 2026-10-31 Permalink → Listen →
Geopolitics & Empire
Dr. Martin Erdmann

…me just mention that too. I do recommend it, but you also have to understand the traps being set for you. If you understand the system and want to get out of it, there are traps set deliberately by those who manage the mercantilist system for you to fall into if you try to get out of that system.

Speaker 1

…the things that the empires did, the British Empire, you talk about the Dutch. I think you said the Dutch was also one of the worst. The things that they did to the local populations around the world, just enslaving them, extracting and taking everything from them. It's, yeah, it's unbelievable.

Dr. Martin Erdmann

Yes. Well, they used opium on a very large scale, especially the Dutch East India Company initially in India, but when it was taken over by the British East India Company and they expropriated the local population, that company, it was a company, had its own military of 250,000 soldiers. And to put that into perspective, no other country in the world at the time, and we are talking about the 16th and 17th hundreds, no other country apart from Russia had more soldiers than that one company, British East India Company. And they conquered Bengal. Bengal was the most prosperous province of India, what we know India now to be. And they took away the land from the native population and forced the native population into growing opium, meaning poppy seeds. They wanted to harvest poppy seeds in order to produce opium. Opium is a very addictive substance. And eventually they shipped that opium to China and more or less addicted the whole country of China and…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

Collections They Appear In

Geopolitics & World Affairs