This "flux and change of value" is the quicksilver to the gold of known facts and scientific concepts (and hard money); the amalgam of the two will give rise to a new system of the world's finance—and new paradigms for wealth, government, and even knowledge itself. Whenever fluxion, the derivative as the slope of the curve of change, is discussed in this era, Newton and Liebniz must be involved. Their on-going dispute over which is the originator of the calculus supplies another of the intricate Baroque inter-weavings to the story.
In an appropriately Baroque fashion, Newton also serves as the pivot-point for another mercury-gold analogy. With the intercession of Daniel Waterhouse, the physicist-become-alchemist is installed as director of the London Mint, at a time when the political battleground between Whig and Tory has been made concrete by two institutions, the Bank of England (based on the mercuric changes expected from Commerce) and the Land Bank (based on the hard-money asset of England itself).
Daniel's reward for convincing Newton to assume to assume control of the Mint is an endowment for the "Massachusetts Bay Colony Institute of Technological Arts," a one-way passage to the colony, and a sinecure as the Institute's Director. There, Daniel hopes to create a Knowledge Engine, conceived as a way to categorize scientific facts, and eventually, to mint new theorems from this flux and change of knowledge.
The Confusion uses its interleaved themes to create a thrilling tale almost (but not quite) overwhelming to the senses, and its appeal demonstrates that the human taste for the artistically complex did not die with the end of the Baroque age. The story is a crucible, with its contents, quicksilver and gold, beaten into a perfect amalgam, somewhat denser than gold alone, and containing the essence of wisdom.
Article comments
1 - Marco
an idea about historical use of mercury, gold and silver