Corey Leore_Using the Wire to Mark up the Accounts: The Federal Reserve's Telegraph System and the Road to Modern Money and Banking (1913-1933) (original) (raw)
Federal Reserve histories have often focused on how the decisions of the American central bank's Chairman and Board of Governors have transformed the country's economy. However, very little research has examined the role that the Fed's technology played in shaping the country's monetary operations. This article highlights the importance of nonhuman technology by employing Actor Network Theory to show how the Fed's introduction, in the first decades of the 20 th century, of a telegraph-based system for money transfers, clearings, and settlements expanded the scope and speed of banking activities. It will provide insight on the nature of money in a modern economy and the Fed's operations by illustrating how the telegraph directly influenced the transition of money from a physical commodity, into an abstract number that appears on a bank's spreadsheet. Les histoires de la Réserve fédérale (Fed) se sont souvent intéressées à la manière dont les décisions du président de la banque centrale américaine et du conseil des gouverneurs de cette dernière ont transformé l'économie du pays. Cependant, très peu de recherches ont examiné le rôle que la technologie de la Fed a joué dans le façonnement des opérations monétaires du pays. Notre article souligne l'importance de la technologie « non-humaine » en employant la théorie de l'acteur-réseau (Actor Network Theory, ou ANT) pour démontrer comment l'introduction par la Fed, dans les premières décennies du XX e siècle, d'un système télégraphique pour les transferts d'argent, les compensations et les règlements a élargi la portée et la vitesse des opérations bancaires. Nous donnerons
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