In supporting this conclusion you may just as well compare the success of children brought up in relationships where the father drives a luxury saloon with those from relationships where the father drives an old wreck.

ECONOMIST: On Venezuela, China, selection in schools, Blair Mountain, immigration, marriage | The

It might sound like something straight out of a Harry Potter movie, but a mysterious piece of rock salvaged from a 400-year-old wreck might turn out to be a legendary Viking "Sunstone" -- an ancient solar compass.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 3.9.13: Sunstones, knotted vortices and a zero-g robot

Yet other absolutist royal families, notably the Habsburgs, would survive until the wreck of old Europe in 1918.

ECONOMIST: European political history