One thing leads to another… in strange and exotic ways.

For instance – Dutch researcher Marco Mostert, of Utrecht University, told  the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, England, on July 11, that the following teleology occurred:

• After 1200, in England and on the Continent, people began moving into towns.
• The migrants quickly learned that townspeople frowned on their wearing nothing under their smocks and gowns; as peasants became tradesmen, and dealt with the opposite sex, it became de rigeur to wear underwear.
• As underwear became popular, so did the supply of rags.
• This in turn increased the production of rag-based paper, and lowered its price; previously parchment (the skin of sheep) was used instead.
• This in turn led to William Caxton’s first printing press, in 1476, whose business model was built on cheap paper.  
• Caxton’s invention of printing, in turn, led to the writing and printing and sale of books. Books, in turn, led to innovation – the creation of new ideas, new findings, new thinking. 

The next time you watch an ad for underwear on TV, instead of scantily-clad models, see instead the march of progress and innovation. And the next time you discard your old underwear, think about how in the past they might have become War and Peace or Leaves of Grass. 

Source: Martin Wainwright, The London Guardian, “how discarded pants helped to boost literacy”, July 12, 2007.