Politics and the Pen

I never grasped that the financial instruments we have today, even currency, had to have origins. The evolution of paper money, alone, is fascinating, as well as the creation of other written transactions.
While we look with fascination from these chapters at these marvels, we must also consider the pen not as a merely neutral device, but one that can be used for good or ill.
States, including the Church, used writing to control their realms. One of their methods was by “counting and categorizing” (287), using, for example, baptism records, as well as burial documentation and wedding information (287). Advertiser, today, use various media to do far more than this, but that is quite another story.
The Church worked with bankers such as the Fuggers. In the case of the latter, the Church would give out receipts for payment for indulgences, which greatly profited the Church as well as the bankers (285). That the Church would behave so unethically is one thing, but that they would actually record the event is quite another matter. Even more interesting was the idea from the Council of Trent to make lists (and check twice) of who the supposedly true Catholics were, thus making Jews and Protestants “nonpersons” (288). Through writing, the state was able to institutionalize, even codify, discrimination.
Governments, however, found themselves controlled by these same outside financial entities, such as the pope by the Medicis, and the German emperor by the Fuggers (284). The leaders faced a gauntlet of documentation, such as loan agreements for launching war (284). The text gives an example of ascencios, special “exchange contracts” to trade credit from the bankers for the precious metals Spain carried from the New World (285). With writing inventions such as the exchange contracts and the loan agreements, the bankers could easily dictate policy to the states. A good topic to study would be the written transactions from the Genoese and Venetians to the Crusading armies, as the latter needed funding.
France used writing to further the courts and taxation (289), but there were problems in that the crown tried to tax in a highly stratified society (290). Written records exposed the weaknesses (290), and thus the crown’s vulnerability.
Writing also influenced the political climate, with disastrous results for the monarchy in France. The printing press granted citizenry greater access of information, such as handbills and posters, and thus announcements to bring about mass movements, and ultimately, revolution (296).
The new inventions, such as the telephone, telegraph and computer, can also be media that the state could control. Indeed, the Germans and the French did for a time make telephones into a state monopoly (471). The text discusses briefly on how evil leaders such as Hitler can use media. The point is, whether one is talking about radio or simulcasts, handbills or posters, the state can not only create a monopoly on the media but also, a monopoly on information. Martin expresses the danger of government control (504-506), and I quite agree with him. There are plenty of examples, like the Nazis and the Soviets, to warrant eternal vigilance.