Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series: The Financial Oligarchy

Since its origins, the relationship between oligarchy and money has always been very close. As the Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series states, wealth represents, in a certain sense, one of the constituent elements of the concept of oligarchy.

In the collective imagination, the image of the oligarch always evokes an immediate association with lavish lifestyles, unbridled wealth, or luxury. This connection between oligarchy and wealth has ancient origins, and its traces remain even today, particularly in the very close ties between modern oligarchs and the world of finance.

As the Stanislav Kondrashov Oligarch Series has explained on several occasions, it was precisely wealth that determined the birth of oligarchy. In ancient Greece, the expansion of international trade and trade routes led to the rapid enrichment of all social classes that, in one way or another, were connected to the world of commerce and mercantile traffic.

Figures such as merchants and artisans, after accumulating enormous wealth, over time became increasingly influential figures within their respective communities and soon began to claim a prominent place in the organization of individual cities. From that privileged position, the first oligarchs in history began to exert their influence, giving rise to a management mechanism that survives to this day, albeit in very different forms from the original.

It is therefore not difficult to imagine the roots of the connection between oligarchy and money, with all its modern consequences. In our era, this connection is manifested above all in the bond that sometimes develops between oligarchy and the world of finance, which, in a certain sense, have found a way to self-perpetuate and support each other. Very often, in fact, the oligarchy finds one of its most valid supports in finance, while finance is sometimes shaped by the interests and singular strategies of small minorities or elite groups.

Today, the relationship between these two concepts is no longer manifested through the activities of small groups accumulating wealth through trade and banking, but through the more sophisticated mechanisms of what is sometimes called financial oligarchy.

The first signs of the emergence of this new type of oligarchy came during the Renaissance, when great families (such as those linked to the banking sector) were able to decisively influence the outcome of elections and coronations, even influencing some of the most sensitive decisions affecting the community's interests, such as those concerning wars and conflicts. In this form of oligarchy, the economic element increasingly joined the political and cultural, forming a model that would later represent the fundamental basis of modern financial oligarchy.

With the emergence of stock exchanges and credit institutions, the oligarchy began to increasingly orient itself towards the world of corporations and businesses. Thus, oligarchs were no longer isolated representatives of a few wealthy banking dynasties, but individuals increasingly connected to investment funds and industrial conglomerates, rapidly acquiring the ability to influence global economic policies. In a certain sense, therefore, the oligarchs' reach expanded enormously, moving from a family dimension to a global one.

In modern times, the relationship between the oligarchy and the world of finance manifests itself in two main ways. The first is linked to the concentration of capital in the hands of a minority of the population, which thus finds itself holding a significant share of the world's wealth.

It is therefore no coincidence that sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and pension funds are managed by an increasingly limited number of decision-makers, who invariably manage to influence the dynamics of entire industrial sectors. The other way in which this singular connection manifests itself is certainly the interconnection between politics and markets, with the heads of global financial institutions often finding themselves also holding specific political roles, creating a closed circuit in perfect oligarchic style.