"Carl, Tom, and Owl fetched their horses, which had been stabled in an old place of polished marble known as BANK..." (p. 43)
Imagine reading the name "BANK" and having no idea what it meant! Is this social commentary? Banks are important to us but how important are they long term if our descendants can stable their horses in an old place known as BANK?
4 comments:
Paul:
Andre Norton's Star Man's Son, published in the same year as Vault of the Ages, has a rather similar moment early on, in a chapter titled "Into the Midst of Yesterday." The main character reads aloud the words on a bronze plate in a building he's just entered:
"'First National Bank of Glentown.'
...
"What was a bank? He had only a vague idea—some sort of a storage place. And this dead town must be Glentown—or once it had been Glentown."
He sends handfuls of coins spinning across the floor to amuse his cat. "But they had no value. A piece of good, rust-proof steel would be worth the taking—not these."
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
But my view is that any society rising to being able to exchange goods and services and being able to work metals should soon grasp the advantages of using metals like bronze/copper, silver, and gold into coins used as a medium of exchange with a "stored value" for selling goods and services. It would be so much more convenient than using barter and laboriously measuring out X amount of maize, meat, ceramic vessels, wine, etc., in pounds, ounces and gallons.
And once that has been grasped, it would not be so difficult to reinvent the concept of financial institutions like banks for a more efficient storing and transfer of large sums of money.
Sean
Sean,
I agree but I think that there are not only pre- but also post-money stages of society.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And any society "transcending" the need for money would first need to reach a post scarcity level. And one we have not reached and won't unless we get off this rock!
Sean
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