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06742_Field_TCUM T307.txt
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1996-04-10
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stress. In practice, our Western use of money as store and
translator of communal work and skill has depended upon long
accustomation to the written word, and upon the power of the
written word to specialize, to delegate, and to separate
functions in an organization.
When we look at the nature and uses of money in
nonliterate societies, we can better understand the ways in
which writing helps to establish currencies. Uniformity of
commodities, combined with a fixed-price system such as we
now take for granted, does not become possible until printing
prepares the ground. “Backward” countries take a long time to
reach economic “take-off” because they do not undergo the
extensive processing of print with its psychological conditioning
in the ways of uniformity and repeatability. In general, the West
is little aware of the way in which the world of prices and