There is currently a lot of noise in the world concerning tariffs. Tariffs and embargoes can become energizing to innovation. Innovation and new ways of doing things lead to progress.

I was interested to learn about papyrus. Papyrus was the preferred writing material in the Mediterranean area for hundreds of years. Papyrus was made from the papyrus reed which grew in marshes along the Nile River. Its stems were cut into strips, pressed into sheets, and could be joined to make long scrolls. The longest known scroll is 133 feet long. Papyrus, however, is very perishable, though many ancient scrolls survive.

The famous Alexandrian Library, a Greek institution in Alexandria, Egypt, was reputed to have a copy of every existing scroll that was known to its administrators. It possessed over 400,000 scrolls. The Alexandrian Library was in competition with the Pergamum Library in what is now Turkey. In order to give the Alexandrian Library the edge in this rivalry, the Egyptians shut off the export of papyrus. This forced Pergamum to develop parchment.

Parchment is made from thin layers of animal skins, and was a vast improvement over leather and clay tablets, which were also used as ancient writing materials. The drawback to parchment, however, was that its pieces were smaller, and could not become long scrolls. This problem was overcome by folding the parchment down the middle and sewing pieces together through the fold. Thus was established the practice in which books are still formed to this day. But for the embargo that Egypt put on papyrus, perhaps we would still be having to deal with unwieldy scrolls.

Papyrus became the preferred writing material of the Mediterranean area about 500 B.C., and held that position until about A.D. 300, although Egypt continued to use it until the 900s.

The Chinese invented paper in A.D. 105. Paper making reached Mesopotamia by 800, Egypt by 900, and Europe by 1100. By 1500 paper had almost completely replaced parchment.

Things are still evolving. Computers are replacing paper and books, I still prefer having a book in my hand, and I still like to sit on the couch with my lap board on my knee and write with pen and paper. However, I then go to the computer and store my composition there.

The great libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum and their vast collections of scrolls are gone. No one even knows for sure what happened to the Alexandrian Library; but thanks to computers, I expect my writings to endure for the next thousand years.