Whether arising from the direct reduction of violence through the state’s capacity as the keeper of order, or as an accidental adaptation built on a tendency for the strong to exploit the weak, the rise of the state is associated a reduction in violence and increase in conditions that are favorable for trade and growth. At a time when the milk of human morality was only reserved for one’s closest kin, the reduction in violence brought on by the brute force of the state allowed for the development of commerce and culture that has since made the state irrelevant.