As with all the ends of bourgeois economy in the factory and on the battlefield, origin is no bar to the dictates of the entrepreneurs: kings, no less directly than businessmen, control technology; it is as democratic as the economic system with which it is bound up. Technology is the essence of this knowledge. It does not work by concepts and images, by the fortunate insight, but refers to method, the exploitation of others’ work, and capital.

- Adorno in The Concept of Enlightenment

The nature thing was an aside, this is the thrust of my "kings with their treasures buying knowledge" in reply to the article title Wealth is Knowledge