Newton and the Counterfeiter was interesting in the fact that the book was primarily about Newton's post-Principia life as a government bureaucrat. However, most of the interesting aspects of the book come in the form of what constituted legal due process in the late 1600's, and the movement from silver and gold to a more modern currency. How exactly was money counterfeited? How do you move away from a "pound of gold" type monetary system to a paper currency (or non-gold/silver coinage) and make that system work? Once you've moved over to currency, how does the larger economic system work (e.g. markets, exchange rates, inflation)?
Some of the confrontation between Newton and key counterfeiters sound remarkably cruel in the context of todays judicial system - death and torture were much rarer in modern pre-Bush Jr. times, so application of these methodologies, or even the threat therein, sound very extreme to today's ears (again, non-Bushie ears). Similarly, trials seemed easily swayed by class differences or lack of experience of the main players on the defense or crown sides.
Some of the countermeasures against counterfeiting (e.g. the ridging of coins, or impressing text along the edge of coins to negate the scrapping off of any significant amount of silver or gold, modernized presses and assembly line production to make a more professional coinage) were interesting to read.
No comments:
Post a Comment