The technology of paper and pencil can be compared to today's calculator and computer technology (Usiskin 1998), and to what preceded it, the abacus. technologies can utilize algorithms. In Europe, the abacus was a particularly good technology when numbers were expressed using the Roman numerals I = 1,V= 5, X= 10, L=50, etc.
Butwhen base 10 appeared on the scene in the Renaissance beginning i Italy, the abacus gradually receded into the background, and the algorithms for addition, subtraction, and multiplication used on the abacus were replaced by algorithms that were better suited for writing.