What Andreas gets wrong is that he thinks that money being a system of control is a new thing. Emperors have long understood how to use money as a system of con

What Andreas gets wrong is that he thinks that money being a system of control is a new thing. Emperors have long understood how to use money as a system of control. They would take slaves and have them mine gold or silver. They would then stamp their face on coins and hand them to soldiers. The soldiers would conquer people and institute a tax requiring the conquered people to return those same coins back to the empire. Why make this game? Now the local populations start doing things for the soldiers and the empire. Markets form. And suddenly, people who were free are now under the control of the empire. Money has always been a system of control. Money is a carrot, taxes are the stick.