True, but even the most despotic feudal tyrants did not actively seek the destruction of the entire planet for money.
Pre-capitalist pollution is still very significant on the global level; capitalism coincides with the development of coke and, eventually, the industrial revolution. Lack of technology, not lack of malice, is the driver there, considering feudal lords are the ultimate NIMBY types - whenever they can force a negative externality onto someone else, they will. For that matter, feudal and clientistic warlords in the modern day do not exactly have an excellent environmental record. The difference would be, I think, that rather than ROI being the driver of ever-increasing pollution, it would be something more akin to WW1 on steroids.
Pre-capitalist pollution is still very significant on the global level; capitalism coincides with the development of coke and, eventually, the industrial revolution. Lack of technology, not lack of malice, is the driver there, considering feudal lords are the ultimate NIMBY types - whenever they can force a negative externality onto someone else, they will. For that matter, feudal and clientistic warlords in the modern day do not exactly have an excellent environmental record. The difference would be, I think, that rather than ROI being the driver of ever-increasing pollution, it would be something more akin to WW1 on steroids.