It is my impression that the modern phase of science and of scholarship began with the rise of the bourgeoisie. Here exploring and exploiting became synonymous, and the collection of knowledge another form of the accumulation of capital; experts became Consols, through which knowledge was invested in order to bear high and perpetual interest. Just as bonds were deposited with bankers, knowledge could be stored in special brains, to be called upon, when needed, by the entrepreneur. Now knowledge was not just power—but power infinitely augmentable.

Universities began to function as knowledge factories and to…