“Used to be.” I’ll assume you mean before Europeans arrived in 1492 and immediately started enslaving people, whose labor formed the majority of the value of the raw materials and crops they produced. Those people mostly disappeared because of new diseases that came over, so the slave labor was imported instead.
Hell, even the Bronze Age is named after the alloy formed by combining copper and tin – from Tinland. People have been trading raw materials, and food/livestock, and manufactured goods since there were people.
And why does a national border determine what’s a luxury and what’s not? Why not state borders? Why not county, city? Why not just draw a line around yourself and anything that comes from outside that line is a luxury? It’s entirely arbitrary.
“Used to be.” I’ll assume you mean before Europeans arrived in 1492 and immediately started enslaving people, whose labor formed the majority of the value of the raw materials and crops they produced. Those people mostly disappeared because of new diseases that came over, so the slave labor was imported instead.
Hell, even the Bronze Age is named after the alloy formed by combining copper and tin – from Tinland. People have been trading raw materials, and food/livestock, and manufactured goods since there were people.
And why does a national border determine what’s a luxury and what’s not? Why not state borders? Why not county, city? Why not just draw a line around yourself and anything that comes from outside that line is a luxury? It’s entirely arbitrary.