In Nineteen Eighty-Four,
the Party in Oceania uses a constant state of war with one of its two global rivals, Eurasia and
Eastasia, to control its own population.employs the same idea on a smaller scale in
, where the pigs use conflicts, real or imagined, with two neighboring
farms for the same purpose. Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield and Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood are on bad
terms with each other andshifts his allegiance between the two as advantage dictates.
Napoleon's energies are focused on these diplomatic and financial negotiations, which
eventually result in his selling a pile of firewood to Frederick at twelve pounds more than the
sum originally offered. Moreover, Frederick had wanted to pay by cheque but Napoleon insists on
cash. As he and the other pigs are congratulating themselves on their financial acumen, Whymper,
the lawyer, discovers that the banknotes are forgeries. The pigs had been too distracted by the
intricacies of their negotiations, raising the price and avoiding the obvious pitfalls of taking
a cheque, to notice this.
In addition to these distractions, there is the
simple point that the pigs have presumably seldom seen money before, particularly in such large
denominations and a forgery would not have to be particularly sophisticated to fool them. It is
only towards the end of the book that they become more used to regular transactions with
humans.
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