Tally sticks

= = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 2 = = = = =

In the first part of Medieval Metrology I showed a medieval ruler for measuring length, as used by the ale tasters.

It was notched in fractional parts but not numbered. The ruler bears a close resemblance to the medieval way of measuring and recording money transactions, also using notched and unnumbered lengths of wood.

The terminology of shares and stocks originated in the practice of splitting tallies. When a man or business lent money to the Bank of England (buying a bond in modern terms), the amount was cut on a tally stick. The tally cutter started with a rectangular board of hazelwood. The money notches were cut across the board before splitting. A large notch for M (1000 pounds), a smaller notch for C (100 pounds), a still smaller one for X (10 pounds), and so on through shillings and pence. Along with the notches, the buyer’s name and the date of purchase were written in ink on both sides of the still unsplit board.

The board was then sawed halfway across, leaving one end unsplit; then split with a chisel instead of a saw, leaving a random pattern of curves. The larger part, partly split, was the trunk or stock, and the smaller all-split part was the folium or leaf.

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Polistra is using a chisel to cut notches of appropriate sizes in the complete board, in order to sell a bond to Happystar.

Next she saws halfway into the stick, leaving one end uncut and unsplit for the stock.

Now she uses a chisel to split off the smaller part of the board, the leaf.

The bank held the leaf and the buyer held the stock, becoming a literal stockholder.

Sherri Olson discusses the concept of partial ownership or shareholding, which arose automatically as part of Natural Law. In a system based on the welfare of the entire community, each worker naturally had a share of the property and a share of the production, as long as he was participating in the community and production.

From each according to his ability, to each according to his WORK.

Marx was simply restating Natural Law, not creating a new idea. The Soviet system simply rebranded a medieval collective civilization.

When the buyer wanted to cash in the stock, he gave the stock to the treasury, where they would use the written record of name and date to locate their corresponding leaf. If the two fitted, the buyer got his cash as indicated by the notches, plus another ancient primitive custom called “interest”. This was a sort of rent payment to reward the buyer for letting the bank use his money. Luckily we’ve advanced beyond such Neanderthal primitive simian notions. We recognize that the Holy Bank deserves all gratitude and obeisance, and has no need to thank or reward Negative Externalities.

The British treasury used this system for centuries, finally abandoning it as part of the Endarkenment in 1826. When they burned the huge pile of unclaimed leaf parts, the fire went out of control and consumed the whole Parliament. Nature was attempting to teach a lesson. Don’t abandon Natural Law to make cheating more convenient.

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Counterfeiting tallies was difficult for two reasons. The split formed a random shape in three dimensions. It’s impossible to split two boards the same way if you’re not sawing. Counterfeiting is especially hard because no two boards have the same grain. The visible pattern of the grain continued between the fat part of the stock and the leaf. A counterfeiter couldn’t possibly find a piece of wood with the same grain pattern, even if he was skilled enough to carve a similar split.

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Modern versions of the practice are either informal or fraudulent.

The informal version was often seen in movies but rare in real life. A contract or agreement was torn in two parts. The party of the first part kept the first part, and the party of the second part kept the second part.

Wood is more foolproof than paper. Manufactured paper is uniform, with no variance within one sheet or between two sheets. If the counterfeiter could see the original, he could match the tear and the ink. Counterfeiters were experts at replicating print and handwriting. Paper also degrades faster than wood, so a genuine match might not look correct after a while.

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The fraudulent version is bitcoin. A “miner” wastes massive amounts of electricity which otherwise could be used by honest people, to generate a huge quantity of random digit patterns. When he finds a suitable pattern, he submits it to the fake “banker”, who compares it with their list of available patterns and pays the “miner” a fixed fee if it matches. He didn’t buy anything from the bank, so he isn’t redeeming a stock. The matched number then becomes the serial number on a new row in the bitcoin spreadsheet. This new row doesn’t represent value, it represents DESTRUCTION OF VALUE by the massive waste of electricity. Aside from that, it’s just a row in an array.

Magical serial numbers aren’t necessary. The magical matching only creates a fake image of semi-legality by analogy with gangster movies. Swindles must look semi-legit to prevent the suckers from calling the cops.

In modern paper or digital records, each bond or bill has a unique serial, assigned in sequence when printing or creating it. The bank or lender carefully maintains records of the serial numbers and amounts, which is enough to guarantee proper identification. After a bond has been sold among traders, it’s no longer a bond because it no longer has a fixed value. It’s just a traded abstraction. REAL bonds, like US Savings Bonds, are meant to be redeemed by the original buyer for the stated face value, so the Treasury uses the customary methods of identification.