It's almost as though any tool can be appropriated for any purpose despite it's intended usage by the designer. If I didn't know any better, I'd say currency means of exchange throughout history was always invented, subverted and finally appropriated by the state. But that's just silly. We all know rulers throughout history, spontaneously had their bureaucratic apparatus invent minting coins as means of taxation and forced every merchant to transact with those coins or else... they would... uhmm... not issue the coins... or something...
It's almost as though any tool can be appropriated for any purpose despite it's intended usage by the designer. If I didn't know any better, I'd say currency means of exchange throughout history was always invented, subverted and finally appropriated by the state. But that's just silly. We all know rulers throughout history, spontaneously had their bureaucratic apparatus invent minting coins as means of taxation and forced every merchant to transact with those coins or else... they would... uhmm... not issue the coins... or something...