1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: The Coin Bureau Podcast is a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome to the Coin Bureau Podcast. This is 3 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: Guy and his good friend Mike. Hello, Hello Mike, and 4 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 1: today we are talking about all things crypto, all things crypto. 5 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: But where are we today? Where are we recording from? 6 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked, Mike. So today we've we've taken 7 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,800 Speaker 1: our recording studio and we're recording from Elon Musk's personal 8 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: bathroom at SpaceX headquarters. And I'll just sort of describe 9 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: our surroundings a little bit for the listener, maybe for 10 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: those of you who haven't been inside Elon Musk's personal 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 1: bathroom before. It's it's very spacious. I don't know if 12 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:53,240 Speaker 1: you can hear that that echo. Um, there's a slightly 13 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,280 Speaker 1: odd smell, but I mean that may be something to 14 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: do with the ash tray near the toilet, um and 15 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 1: on the back of the door, or there's a big 16 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: picture of Jeff Bezos um and there's kind of darts 17 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: sticking out of it or around and I what I 18 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,320 Speaker 1: think he's been doing, or whoever's been using this bathroom 19 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: has been sat on the on the toilet and has 20 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: been throwing the darts from there, and it's quite a distance. 21 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: I mean, it's a good sort of what would you 22 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: say about ten ms? Yeah? So I mean he's ironically 23 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: there's Amazon packages everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, he's clearly a man 24 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,400 Speaker 1: of double standard. Yeah. Good acoustic stuff for for a bathroom, 25 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,000 Speaker 1: really good. I mean again, i'd expect that, but yeah, 26 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:37,480 Speaker 1: I mean I hope it doesn't come it. I hope 27 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: he doesn't because we haven't got permission. I thought you 28 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: were going to ask him. You thought I was going 29 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: to ask him. Wires were crossed. Um, and yes, So elon, 30 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, thanks and sorry. Okay, so 31 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 1: shall I before we go on? Shall I talk about 32 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: the coin Bureau slightly? Or should I address the lie 33 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: that I spoke earlier in the introduction? Um? I think 34 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: maybe address the life first of all. Address the life 35 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: first of all. Okay, I said in this podcast that 36 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: we're going to talk all things crypto. That is true generally, 37 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: but for this episode, actually we're barely going to talk 38 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 1: about crypto at all. In fact, we might not even 39 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: mention it. Um. I know that may sound weird for 40 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: a podcast that's supposedly all about crypto, but today we're 41 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,799 Speaker 1: gonna be talking about money and how it works. And 42 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: I think this is really important. When I was first 43 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:30,720 Speaker 1: researching crypto, when I first got into bitcoin and all 44 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: that sort of stuff, one of the things that I 45 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: noticed quite early on was that I had to I 46 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: had to go back and think about money in general 47 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: and how I understood it and how I again sort 48 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: of challenge my conceptions of it. And once I got 49 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:50,960 Speaker 1: that all square, I found that bitcoin and crypto exactly exactly. 50 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: So that's what I thought we could do today. We 51 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: just have a little dive into the history of money, 52 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: and nothing comprehensive, nothing too deep, but just a look 53 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: at money, how it's evolved, how we use it, how 54 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: we how we used to use it, and how we 55 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: use it now, um, and some instances of what used 56 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 1: to pass for money and that sort of stuff. I 57 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: think it could be really interesting. I think it's a 58 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: great place to start. Guy, Thank you, Mike, thank you UM. 59 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 1: And I should say, obviously, the Coin Bureau, for those 60 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 1: who don't know, is everyone's one stop shop for crypto education. 61 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: We have our YouTube channel million plus subscribers. Have I 62 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 1: mentioned that recently, no Ah, Well, now you know. So 63 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:35,080 Speaker 1: we have our YouTube channel. We also have web how 64 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: many subscribers one million plus plus plus what plus one? 65 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: One million and one? No, we're last time I looked 66 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 1: weird at about one point one point four million. Jeez, yeah, Louise, yeah, yeah, 67 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm pretty pleased, So like, can subscribe? Yes please. 68 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: We've also got a website which is full of educational 69 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: material and not so many videos of me for people 70 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: who like to read exactly exactly those types I think 71 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 1: they still exist. We also have our various social media 72 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: channels Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. I know you're personally addicted to 73 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: all three of those. Don't need to There's no need 74 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:17,919 Speaker 1: to blow smoke up my ass about that one. I 75 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: also have a weekly newsletter that I send out and now, 76 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 1: of course, this podcast is part of the coin bureau Stable. 77 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: Yet another thoroughbread in that coin bureau Stable. On that note, 78 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: let's start this whole thing. Then, let's start with a 79 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: bit of a thought experiment, um and imagine a world 80 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: without money. And I wonder if I wonder if we 81 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: could get sort of a sort of slightly transitional sound, 82 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:51,040 Speaker 1: So a world without money. I'm quite enjoying this. Let's 83 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,839 Speaker 1: imagine ourselves then to be living in a small economy. 84 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: So a village, say in the dim and distant past. Um. 85 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:00,720 Speaker 1: So I guess sort of around the time that maybe 86 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,839 Speaker 1: some episodes of Game of Thrones are set. Yeah, medieval 87 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: or perhaps modern day Afghanistan. Yes, you know, a society 88 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: UM that is kind of relatively unsophisticated, doesn't have an 89 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:19,280 Speaker 1: awful lot of technology. So yeah, we're imagining ourselves in 90 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: this village in either wester Ross or Afghanistan somewhere, and 91 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: there's a sort of kind of assistance farming, hand to 92 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: mouth kind of existence vibe going on. UM. And I 93 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: guess what that means is that everything that we use, 94 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: everything that the people living in this small economy uses, 95 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,160 Speaker 1: they they either have to kind of make themselves or 96 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: grow themselves. That there's no sort of you can't order in. 97 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,840 Speaker 1: There's no Amazon or door dash or door dash or 98 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:50,039 Speaker 1: yeah or any sort of there's I don't think they've 99 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: even got delivery. Well, yeah, this is how primitive we're talking, 100 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:59,160 Speaker 1: really really primitive. I mean, it's horrifically primitive. You might say. Yeah, Um, 101 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:03,600 Speaker 1: so let's say we're imagining ourselves in this UM. Now, 102 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: let's say for the sake of argument that your job 103 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,840 Speaker 1: is chickens. You're a chicken farmer, say you've got a 104 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,599 Speaker 1: lot of chickens. Um, And I'm slightly lower down the 105 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: social scale. I farm. I'm a sort of I grow vegetables, 106 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: and perhaps I have a lot of turnips. So, um, 107 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: let's imagine the sort of situation you're kind of you're 108 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:27,960 Speaker 1: a bit chickened out. I'm a bit turniped out. So 109 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: we decide that we want a bit of variety in 110 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:35,239 Speaker 1: our respective diets. Anyhow, Yes, so we're both slightly tired 111 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: of our current diets. So I decide that I want 112 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 1: a bit of your chicken, and you decide that, yeah, 113 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: a bit of turnip would would lighten things up a bit, 114 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: mix things up a little bit. So everything's fine, right, 115 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,520 Speaker 1: we can just do a straight swap. Now, obviously we'd 116 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: have to calculate just how many turnips a chicken is worth. 117 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: Obviously I don't think we could do one for one, yeah, 118 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: unless it was a really big turnip or a very 119 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: or a very small poor chicken one wing, half a beak, yeah, 120 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: just obviously not being cared for very Yeah. So um, 121 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: this is a this is a situation that we find 122 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: ourselves in the economists call a coincidence of wants. Yes, 123 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: and this is fine when it occurs because you have 124 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: something I want, I have something you want, and we 125 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: can make an exchange. But we don't need to look 126 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: very far beyond this to realize that that's going to 127 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: break down pretty quickly, and that coincidence of once is 128 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: not going to occur all that often, because the next 129 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:43,960 Speaker 1: time that you fancy a bit of variety, or I 130 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: fancy a change from turnips or anything like that, um, 131 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: we could have a problem because you don't want you 132 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: might not want any more turnips. Um. So you come 133 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: along and I'd be like, hey, Mike, that chicken was great, 134 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. Mrs Guy did some great work with it. 135 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: How about another and you could you'd be something along 136 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: the lines of, well, yeah, I wasn't wild about those turnips. 137 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: So yeah, this coincidence of once doesn't happen very often. 138 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: So the limitations of a system like this become pretty obvious. Um. 139 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,800 Speaker 1: And if we're just sort of exchanging amongst one another, 140 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: so it becomes very very difficult. So I would have 141 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 1: if I was determined to get my hands on your chicken, 142 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: then but you're not willing to accept turnips. Then I 143 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: have a problem. I have to I have to go 144 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:39,440 Speaker 1: to another villager who had maybe specializes in something else 145 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:41,439 Speaker 1: that I want. You need to know what I want 146 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: and then find it and hope that the person who's 147 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: supplying what I want also wants what you're giving. Exactly exactly. 148 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: And if only there was something that could facilitate the 149 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: easier transfer of goods, yes, exactly exactly so um. And 150 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:01,839 Speaker 1: now this is obviously this sort of economy that we're 151 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: talking about, This, this small economy is is what's known 152 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: as a barter economy. We're just we're just bargaining with 153 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:09,800 Speaker 1: each other. So I would go off and i'd hopefully 154 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:13,679 Speaker 1: find someone who was selling I don't know, swords, um, 155 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: and I could persuade them to to give me a 156 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:18,680 Speaker 1: sword for a certain amount of turn You would need 157 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: to buy the chicken. Yeah, then I could just take 158 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,960 Speaker 1: the could just kill you and take your chicken, and 159 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 1: before you know, the whole place has descended into anarchy. Yeah. 160 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 1: So you can see how a barter economy doesn't doesn't 161 00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:35,040 Speaker 1: on the face on the face of it, were quite clunky, 162 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: quite clunky. Yeah, And what one of the One of 163 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,719 Speaker 1: the by products of it is that there isn't much 164 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: sort of specialization. There isn't much innovation because if someone 165 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: makes or grows something that not many people want, something, 166 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: something that's quite specialized, then they're going to be unable 167 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: in all probability to swap it for more useful things. 168 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 1: So if you only make swords, for instance, once everyone 169 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,400 Speaker 1: in the village as a sword, you're you're going to 170 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: run out of options. So as you say, we need 171 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:10,959 Speaker 1: some sort of way in which we can exchange goods 172 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: without having to barter, So there's a sort of stifling 173 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,839 Speaker 1: of innovation. People don't really specialize. The economy remains very 174 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 1: very basic in this sense, so as you say, yeah, 175 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:24,800 Speaker 1: perhaps we need we need some sort of way of 176 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:29,680 Speaker 1: exchanging things without actually having to barter amongst ourselves. Now, 177 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:34,439 Speaker 1: a lot of people believe that this is where money 178 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:40,079 Speaker 1: comes from, that initially humans engaged in barter human societies 179 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,320 Speaker 1: were barter economies, and everyone sort of slowly came to 180 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: this realization, and that is where we get modern money. Now, 181 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: before we go on, I should I should point out 182 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,280 Speaker 1: that there is there's no real evidence of this as 183 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:57,839 Speaker 1: far as as far as I could tell research before 184 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: penns and paper were invented. Well, yes, there's there was 185 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,280 Speaker 1: no one writing these sort of things down obviously, and 186 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 1: I guess a barter economy wouldn't leave any evidence anyway, 187 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:09,720 Speaker 1: no podcast about it or anything, not even that. Yeah, 188 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:12,120 Speaker 1: I mean, this is how I can't. I can't. I 189 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: can't over egg I can't overstate how basic this economy is. 190 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:21,760 Speaker 1: I mean they didn't even have regular TV. Yeah, I know. 191 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: Let's quickly talk about some useful terms. There are just 192 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: a couple of useful terms that I want to flag up. 193 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: They're going to going to appear a few times when 194 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: we talk about money. The first is something called sailability, 195 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,960 Speaker 1: and the easiest way to describe this assailability is the 196 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:41,440 Speaker 1: ease with which something can be sold, the amount of 197 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: demand for something. Yeah, how easy it is to to 198 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:49,079 Speaker 1: exchange something to sell something. Um. Now, there are three 199 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: different types of sailability, the sailability across time. So this 200 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:57,960 Speaker 1: is how well something holds its value over time. Now, um, 201 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:01,160 Speaker 1: if you think of a turnips, a turnip is not 202 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,280 Speaker 1: going to be a great store of any kind of world. 203 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,600 Speaker 1: It's not going to have much salability over time because 204 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 1: it will get rotten. Yes, there's going to go off. Yeah, 205 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 1: there's the famous sort of turnip window. Yes, all economists 206 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: turnips quickly that turnip windows closing. And where's a chicken? 207 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: You just kill it when you want it, yeah, if 208 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:26,120 Speaker 1: you if you want it dead. It could just be 209 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: a pet chicken. It could just be a pet chicken. 210 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,280 Speaker 1: I mean, chickens have several several benefits, and we'll talk 211 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:36,200 Speaker 1: about this when we look at commodity money. But chickens obviously, yeah, 212 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: I mean, they do keep their value across time, although 213 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 1: they do have an annoying habit of dying. Like all 214 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,200 Speaker 1: living things, a turnip broughts, a chicken will eventually die. 215 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,440 Speaker 1: But chickens do have other advantages, which are eggs and 216 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: feathers exactly exactly which will touch on in a minute. 217 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:55,959 Speaker 1: So the other forms of scalability, one is sailability, I 218 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: should say, the other forms of salability our sailability a 219 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 1: us scales, So that is how easily something can be 220 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:09,360 Speaker 1: converted into larger or smaller units. Turnip chop up. I 221 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 1: could give you half a turnip a quarter of a turnip. 222 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,520 Speaker 1: Chickens slightly more difficult. I mean you'd have to you'd 223 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:16,840 Speaker 1: have to be happy that the person taking half a 224 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:21,360 Speaker 1: chicken wanted half a dead chicken. You can't subdivide a 225 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:27,520 Speaker 1: live chicken, which obviously detracts from its value. And then 226 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: we have sailability across space. Um, and this is how 227 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,439 Speaker 1: easily something can be transported. A chicken can be a chicken. 228 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 1: Chickens and turnips are fairly sailable across space. Although you 229 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: wouldn't want to try and transport too many chickens. More 230 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: chickens you try and transport, the harder it is. And 231 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: kind of ditto with turnips. You know, if you need 232 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:49,439 Speaker 1: to move a thousand turnips from point A to point B, 233 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:52,839 Speaker 1: you're going to struggle. You're gonna have to get yourself 234 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: some sort of card. Let's talk quickly about metalists versus 235 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,760 Speaker 1: child list Moving swiftly on from we will get back 236 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:04,720 Speaker 1: to chickens. Good, I should I should remind listeners that 237 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,680 Speaker 1: not this podcast episode isn't going to be focused solely 238 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:13,960 Speaker 1: on chickens, but chickens will be mentioned quite a few times. Now. 239 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: Metalists versus chart lists is what I want to talk about. 240 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: And I see you, I see you short of shaking 241 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: your head there and pursing your lips and I'm not 242 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: sure what these are metal list I thought were people 243 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 1: with long haired head bang chart lists. No idea maybe yeh, 244 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: people who went to charterhouse. Yeah. Um. I had no 245 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: idea of metalism and chartism until I until I sort 246 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 1: of went back and and research money when I was 247 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:44,040 Speaker 1: looking into bitcoin, um, and I initially sort of saw 248 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:46,520 Speaker 1: these two terms and thought, this is this is very 249 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: specialized stuff. I don't need to worry about this. But 250 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: when I dug down into it a little more, it 251 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: was quite interesting because there are basically two schools of 252 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: thought regarding the nature of money, and what the one 253 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,520 Speaker 1: that we've just been talking about or touching on concerning 254 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: chickens and other things, is this idea of metalism. And 255 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:09,840 Speaker 1: this is the view that certain commodities, certain precious metals perhaps, 256 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:13,840 Speaker 1: but other commodities as well, were chosen or evolved to 257 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: take the place of barter. And that's kind of what 258 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: you said as well, you know, you said when we 259 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:20,960 Speaker 1: were when when when we were talking about this barter 260 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: economy and watching it kind of fall apart in front 261 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,080 Speaker 1: of our eyes, when when we realized that you didn't 262 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: like turnips, and you said, we need some form of 263 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 1: we need something coin. This is a metalist point of view. 264 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 1: Metalism is the idea that certain commodities evolved or were 265 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 1: chosen to take the place of barter um. And it's 266 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:42,640 Speaker 1: the idea as well that a currency needs to have 267 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 1: an actual thing backing at, something tangible behind it, and 268 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,040 Speaker 1: gold is the best example here. So the opposing view 269 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 1: to metalism is what is known as chartil is m 270 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: Now this is slightly more complex. This argues that money 271 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: is in fat act kind of an embodiment of an 272 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: agreement between people and the society they live in. Yeah, okay, 273 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: I can see you. It's it's tricky that. So the 274 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: guy who first came up with the term was a 275 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,040 Speaker 1: German economist. He was called George Friedrich Knapp, and he 276 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: said money is a creature of law rather than it 277 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: being any sort of commodity, and very simply chart lists, 278 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:32,280 Speaker 1: I guess the way to explain the universal agreement. Yeah yeah. 279 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: And what what chatilism argues is that money kind of 280 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: grew up as a way of settling kind of obligations 281 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:44,920 Speaker 1: or debts between people. So there wasn't a conscious decision 282 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: that we need, oh, we need something to take the 283 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:53,640 Speaker 1: place of barter, but what came first, essentially was the 284 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,480 Speaker 1: chicken which came Yeah, and this is the yeah chiltalism 285 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: is built around the argument of the chick in the 286 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: turning that famous argument. Yeah. Um, I guess the most 287 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 1: simple way that I found to to describe the difference 288 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: between metalists and chart lists. Metalists believe money is a 289 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: tangible thing, while chart lists tend to see it more 290 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: as a concept. So these two theories, yeah, okay, Yeah, 291 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:24,760 Speaker 1: these are two conflicting theories of how money came about. 292 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,360 Speaker 1: And there there are two schools, and I think, like anything, 293 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,560 Speaker 1: the truth is probably somewhere between. Yeah, somewhere in between. 294 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 1: And again I think a lot of chart lists will 295 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: point out that again there's no evidence that any sort 296 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:41,679 Speaker 1: of barter society existed. Um, and we obviously know that 297 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: barter takes place, but not at not at a sort 298 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,199 Speaker 1: of societal level. It might, you know, you and I 299 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,439 Speaker 1: might swap something. Um, I do remember when we were 300 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 1: at boarding school. Yes, um, there was a kind of 301 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 1: barter economy there. Oh, not for bogs, not for for 302 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 1: booze bags and Portan Max exactly, yeah, booze cigarettes and porno. Yes, 303 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,560 Speaker 1: So this idea so the chart list idea is kind 304 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 1: of money as a concept, and they say that perhaps 305 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: that the idea that actually before money there was dead 306 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,719 Speaker 1: and the way that money grew up was as a 307 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: way of settling these obligations or debts. So let's say, 308 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: for instance, that I needed a chicken and you were 309 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,360 Speaker 1: prepared to You were prepared to give me one. Therefore 310 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: I was in your debt and at some point I 311 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:32,959 Speaker 1: would have to pay back that debt. Yeah, you know 312 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: it would be come to me on the day of 313 00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:40,520 Speaker 1: my chicken's wedding. Someday I will come to you and 314 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,920 Speaker 1: I will ask something for me. God. Remember again, I've 315 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,120 Speaker 1: got one voice. You've got one sort of comedy voice, 316 00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: and it's sort of jags between various characters. Yeah, um, 317 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,439 Speaker 1: so I owe you a chicken. But let's say that, 318 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 1: let's say that we don't necessarily live in the same village. 319 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: Maybe I'm a sort of traveling merchant or something like that. Um, 320 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 1: so we would we would have to remember these debts 321 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:08,200 Speaker 1: and obligations would have to be remembered, um and settled 322 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: at some point in the future. And it may be 323 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,640 Speaker 1: that I would come back and perhaps we would both 324 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:18,360 Speaker 1: remember that I owed you a chicken. I go, oh, Mike, 325 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: here's that chicken I owe you from? Yeah, but what 326 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:24,399 Speaker 1: if there was a lot of time involved what it 327 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: might be years before I next saw you. I come back, 328 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,920 Speaker 1: you go our guy, just just the man, just the man. 329 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: Where's that chicken? And because we're we don't write anything 330 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:38,240 Speaker 1: down because a lot of time has involved what chicken? 331 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,240 Speaker 1: I don't know your chicken? And you can see, well, 332 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:45,120 Speaker 1: fill my sword exactly exactly and that and that's where 333 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,360 Speaker 1: sort of violence comes in and everything falls apart. Yeah. 334 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 1: I guess in these instances that maybe I owing you 335 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,280 Speaker 1: or or being indebted to you in some way, either 336 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:56,400 Speaker 1: because you gave me a chicken or I stole a chicken, 337 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,680 Speaker 1: whatever it might be. Both instances can be simplified if 338 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:05,159 Speaker 1: there is some sort of monetary system in place. And 339 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 1: this is the kind of chartless viewpoint. This says that 340 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 1: that money evolved to to fulfill this, to fulfill this role, 341 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:14,960 Speaker 1: to fulfill these kind of debts and obligations. And it's 342 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: not necess it's not just it's not just people exchanging 343 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 1: things or borrowing things whatever like that. It could be 344 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 1: things like a dowry or something like that. If I 345 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:26,880 Speaker 1: wanted to marry your daughter. This idea of of some 346 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,399 Speaker 1: sort of money existing would make this whole thing easier. 347 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:32,200 Speaker 1: And this is the chartless point of this is the 348 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,960 Speaker 1: chartless view that it evolved to to fill this sort 349 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,640 Speaker 1: of role um and crucially some sort of without this 350 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 1: without this idea of settling these debts either sort of 351 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,960 Speaker 1: instantly or further down the line um. And bearing in 352 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: mind that most people would have been a literate so 353 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 1: there wouldn't have been there wouldn't have been any sort 354 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 1: of many sort of written records. Um, we need a 355 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: lot of trust in place. And we'll see later, I 356 00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:02,439 Speaker 1: think probably in the next episode when we look at 357 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,760 Speaker 1: the sort of modern financial system more, the role of 358 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,960 Speaker 1: trust will become really important and we'll talk a lot 359 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: more about trust. But I think at this stage you 360 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,639 Speaker 1: can already see that you sort of trusting that I 361 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,359 Speaker 1: will settle this debt at some point in the future 362 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:23,360 Speaker 1: exactly exactly, So let's move on. I want to talk 363 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,359 Speaker 1: about before we talk about anything else, before we go 364 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:27,879 Speaker 1: too much deeper into the history of money or anything 365 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:29,919 Speaker 1: like that, I want to I want to think of 366 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:33,040 Speaker 1: money from the point of view of it being a technology. 367 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,560 Speaker 1: Money as tech um and I think this is a 368 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,959 Speaker 1: really useful way of looking at it. The money is 369 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:43,560 Speaker 1: a technology like anything else, and as people get more 370 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:47,359 Speaker 1: adept at working at it, it becomes more useful and 371 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:52,000 Speaker 1: more advanced. So in the in the context of money, 372 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: let's say better metal working skills. So as humans got 373 00:21:55,520 --> 00:22:00,400 Speaker 1: better working with metal, it became possible to create coins. 374 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,040 Speaker 1: And as we got even better at working with metal, 375 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: those coins were able to be created to sort of 376 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,880 Speaker 1: uniform sizes or uniform weights, so they all look the same. 377 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: They were fungible, which means they could you know, they 378 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,280 Speaker 1: could be readily interchange. One coin of a certain size 379 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:19,600 Speaker 1: and weight was worth the same as another coin that 380 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:23,120 Speaker 1: looked the same. And this is really important, this idea 381 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:29,359 Speaker 1: of standardization. And this meant that when we talk about 382 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:32,560 Speaker 1: coins and things like that, you know, this was if everything, 383 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:34,879 Speaker 1: if we knew, if we had confidence that a coin 384 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: was worth a certain amount, we could tell by looking 385 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,360 Speaker 1: at it, then that saved us having to weigh out 386 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: things deal in any other sorts of money. And so 387 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: do you see that as as we become better at 388 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: working with this technology that is money, we find it 389 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: can do more for us. And this is something will 390 00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,080 Speaker 1: I think we'll just keep circling back to this over 391 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,960 Speaker 1: the money is a technology. Money is a technology, Yeah, 392 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: like many other things. And I think thinking in these 393 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: terms is a good way to approach the history of 394 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:08,280 Speaker 1: more modern forms. I mean, it's just there's a way. 395 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 1: It's like writing something down is a technology. Money is 396 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: a technology. Wheel is a technology. It's it's an advancement 397 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: of knowledge, exactly, exactly, And again I didn't it's maybe 398 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,879 Speaker 1: not the sort of thing that you would automatically. No, 399 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: I mean when you think about it, it makes sense, 400 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,400 Speaker 1: but it doesn't like because nowadays you just think technology 401 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 1: as a phone or you know, a computer or something 402 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,240 Speaker 1: a bit more advanced like that. But yeah, I suppose 403 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,040 Speaker 1: it's an early form of tech. Yeah, makes sense. Yeah, 404 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 1: like the wheel or chicken the chicken turnip transportation system. 405 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,280 Speaker 1: When the chicken the chicken. Yeah, when when people finally 406 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: got that nailed, the world world advanced massively. I mean 407 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,840 Speaker 1: that was the I can imagine your Amazon packages being 408 00:23:54,840 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 1: delivered by chicken. Yeah, those bloody chickens late again. Um, 409 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,680 Speaker 1: so let's think about the role of money. Then. If 410 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: we go back to our village in wester Ross, Stroke Afghanistan. 411 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:12,359 Speaker 1: It's pretty obvious, as we said, that some form of 412 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: money is needed in order to people, for people to 413 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,360 Speaker 1: buy goods from each other. Otherwise it gets way too 414 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: complicated and without these things are tricky and an actual 415 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:24,359 Speaker 1: trade would be difficult. Um. So when it comes to 416 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:27,320 Speaker 1: defining what money is, now this is the kind of 417 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,719 Speaker 1: official line. There are kind of three roles that that 418 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,920 Speaker 1: money is is expected to play. Okay, are you ready 419 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: for this? This is this is huge. So the first 420 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 1: role is a medium of exchange. Now what do I 421 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,359 Speaker 1: mean by this? So a medium of exchange a way 422 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: of buying and selling goods or settling debts. So I 423 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:51,280 Speaker 1: want to buy your chicken. I don't have anything you 424 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 1: want in return, but I can use another means of payment. 425 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,600 Speaker 1: But crucially, you have to then be able to use 426 00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: this means of payment that I give you in this 427 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: same way with someone else. Yeah, right, makes sense. Yeah, 428 00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: So a medium of exchange. Um. And the really important 429 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: part of it is that this form of payment has 430 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:12,560 Speaker 1: to be accepted by everyone else in the economy that 431 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,439 Speaker 1: we're operating. So that stops me from declaring that my 432 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:18,679 Speaker 1: turnips are a medium of exchange. And this is what 433 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: we're all going to be using because everyone would turn 434 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:26,080 Speaker 1: around and say, no, guy, that's not actually allergic to turnips. Yeah, okay, 435 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:32,120 Speaker 1: I'm getting my sword. Yeah, allergic to them too. I've 436 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: got a really I have a really bad Wherever my 437 00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,080 Speaker 1: sword comes into contact with me, it just gets quite red. 438 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,119 Speaker 1: It's really bad for my skin. Yeah. Um. So the 439 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,080 Speaker 1: second function of money, the second role of money is 440 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:48,040 Speaker 1: as a store of value. And we talked. We touched 441 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,639 Speaker 1: upon this with salability over time. So a store of 442 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,200 Speaker 1: value holds its value over time and for the very 443 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,360 Speaker 1: least that has to be in the in the kind 444 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,439 Speaker 1: of short to medium term, I think. So again, a 445 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: turnip or a chicken is kind of useless in this respect. 446 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,040 Speaker 1: A chicken is probably better than the turn it because 447 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: a turn it will rot pretty quickly, but a chicken will, hopefully, 448 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,040 Speaker 1: especially if you care for it as well as I'm 449 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: sure you do care for your chickens, it may last 450 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,880 Speaker 1: slightly longer, but obviously in the long term years plus, 451 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:22,480 Speaker 1: this deteriorates. So if I use it too, if I 452 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,439 Speaker 1: use this, this this form of money, if I use 453 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: it to buy a chicken from you, you need to 454 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: be confident that you'll be able to buy something of 455 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,800 Speaker 1: equivalent value, perhaps another chicken with it. In the future, 456 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,119 Speaker 1: you'll be able to put it under your mattress and 457 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,520 Speaker 1: remember it's there. I can't put a chicken under your mattress. 458 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,760 Speaker 1: I've tried to, trust me. It did not work out well, 459 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,160 Speaker 1: not for the chicken. I can't think it was a spot. 460 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:48,080 Speaker 1: I can't think it was a great night's sleep for 461 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:52,280 Speaker 1: you either. Yeah. So this is why this idea of 462 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 1: a store of value is why money nowadays tends to 463 00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: consist of nonperishable goods, an inanimate object. Yeah. Yeah, it 464 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,200 Speaker 1: used to be something that doesn't degrade or rot or 465 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: or go off or anything like that, because that would 466 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,959 Speaker 1: obviously be pretty useless. Then we have the third function 467 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: of money, and this is as a unit of account. 468 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,919 Speaker 1: Now this means that it can be used to record 469 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,399 Speaker 1: the value of what your own or compare the price 470 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,600 Speaker 1: of different items. Do you see what I mean? So? Um, yeah, 471 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,199 Speaker 1: I kind of get because the value of things will change. 472 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,400 Speaker 1: So if they with supply and demand. If you've got, um, 473 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,119 Speaker 1: you know, an abundance of turnips the people and everyone 474 00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,119 Speaker 1: has loads of turnips, then people won't They've got options 475 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:39,480 Speaker 1: of where they can get them in the price will 476 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:44,120 Speaker 1: come down. So yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, and it's 477 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 1: something a unit of account. It functions well when you 478 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: can measure out your entire sort of net worth, if 479 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,760 Speaker 1: you like, if we use a modern money, you could 480 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: probably quite accurately calculate what you're worth in British pounds. 481 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,280 Speaker 1: You know, you have whole seven seven that's that, that's 482 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,959 Speaker 1: the moment, that's the entire value of all your assets, 483 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 1: everything you earned. Had a bad week week in the casino, 484 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: before that, it was a lot higher, I promised, Um. Yeah. 485 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: So and and obviously most you know, all kinds of 486 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: national currencies these days function quite well as a unit 487 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,119 Speaker 1: of accounting that people can people can tot up how 488 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: much they and so long as that currency remains relatively stable. 489 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,000 Speaker 1: If it's being massively devalued, then less so Venezuela. Yeah 490 00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: now some people, Um well, so yeah, I think the 491 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: last point just to make our on on the unit 492 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,400 Speaker 1: of account thing, it needs to make sort make some 493 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 1: sort of standardization possible. Um. So if we're using this 494 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,120 Speaker 1: currency again everyone ideally everyone's using it, and we can 495 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: calculate sort of roughly where we are, what people are 496 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: in and stuff, And obviously we can do that fairly easily, 497 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 1: you and you and you and I in Great British pounds. 498 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:00,560 Speaker 1: A lot more difficult to calculate what we're worth in turnips. Well, 499 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:07,600 Speaker 1: I mean, if you're worth turnips. So I mean things 500 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 1: are looking up already. On that note, should we take 501 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:27,440 Speaker 1: a break. We're back, welcome back. Shall we talk about 502 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: some early forms of money? Then we're not going to 503 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: talk anymore about chickens or turnips or turnips. I don't 504 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: think they may come up. Okay, let's talk about some 505 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,160 Speaker 1: more early forms of money. Yes, okay. So however, money 506 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: came about whether you whether you subscribe to the metalist 507 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 1: or the chart list point of view, or whether like you, Mike, 508 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: you're sort of on the fence, and a little bit 509 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: of both, a little bit of both. Little buy when 510 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:57,000 Speaker 1: it comes to the chartless mentalist, mentalist, are you chartless? 511 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,160 Speaker 1: Whatever it is, whatever you call you both which over 512 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 1: one it is? This money has been in use in 513 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: some form of another for thousands of years, and we 514 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:09,520 Speaker 1: reckon that perhaps the first form of money was what 515 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: is now known as commodity money. So this would be 516 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 1: physical things that have value in themselves. So a good 517 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:21,320 Speaker 1: example here would be a chicken. I thought we weren't 518 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,960 Speaker 1: coming butter fine, Okay. I think a better example would 519 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,800 Speaker 1: be something like livestock or grain and livestock. I suppose 520 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: cattle in this because there is lots of evidence that 521 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 1: cattle has been used as a form of exchange dowries, 522 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,680 Speaker 1: dowries camels for a lady exactly. Yes, I remember being 523 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:41,960 Speaker 1: on holiday in Egypt many years ago, about twenty years 524 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:43,880 Speaker 1: ago or something, and some guy came up to me 525 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 1: and he offered me a hundred camels for my sister. Now, 526 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:50,280 Speaker 1: what did you do with those hundred camels? Well, I 527 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:54,959 Speaker 1: still have the summer um and I think probably he 528 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:57,360 Speaker 1: was kind of playing up to what, you know, this 529 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,000 Speaker 1: kind of stereotype that Western has had of people of 530 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,560 Speaker 1: Egyptian people or other or other people. But it was 531 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 1: interesting in that I think this, this idea of exchanging livestock, 532 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:12,200 Speaker 1: exchanging the lights of camels or cattle, has been going 533 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: on for thousands of years, and I think recently there 534 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,040 Speaker 1: were instances of cattle being stolen in Kenya in order 535 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:23,240 Speaker 1: to pay a dowry, as you mentioned earlier. So these 536 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,080 Speaker 1: have these have definitely been used as money of some sort. Um. 537 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,800 Speaker 1: And as we said, a chicken or a cat or 538 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:33,120 Speaker 1: a cow or something would be a form of commodity 539 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 1: money because it has value itself. A cow can give you. 540 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,040 Speaker 1: A cow can give you milk, um, it can give 541 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,440 Speaker 1: you meat. It can also give you more cows. I 542 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,239 Speaker 1: think this is worth point as well. You know, it's 543 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:49,320 Speaker 1: kind of like an interest bearing asset in a way. Um. 544 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: And at the end of it, at the end of it, 545 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: you can also slaughter it and need it um and 546 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,680 Speaker 1: make its skin into a nice coat sandals, sandals, that's 547 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:04,400 Speaker 1: what that's like, a nice pair of leather sandals. Okay. Well, um, 548 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,160 Speaker 1: So when we were talking earlier about the idea of 549 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 1: sailability over time and sailability over space and all this 550 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:14,480 Speaker 1: sort of thing, something like a cow would be quite 551 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:19,680 Speaker 1: useful in that respect because cows lived for a few years. 552 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:22,360 Speaker 1: They were also quite easy to transport in a way, 553 00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: and that they kind of get themselves from a to 554 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,440 Speaker 1: b under their own steam. I mean you kind of 555 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: have to direct them a bit. But that that money 556 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:34,800 Speaker 1: is transportable, it's a little more difficult to divide a 557 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,840 Speaker 1: cow up. Um, So you can't you know, unless as 558 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 1: I say, as as we touched on with the chicken, 559 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:44,960 Speaker 1: unless you want to actually kill it. Yeah, cattle can 560 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:49,480 Speaker 1: be a decent medium of exchange because you know you can. 561 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: You could say, well, this cow is worth twenty chickens perhaps, 562 00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: or thirty chickens, or a certain number of pigs, or 563 00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:00,200 Speaker 1: a certain weight of grain or something like that. Um. 564 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: A reasonable long term store of value, but not too 565 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: long um. And obviously we talked about this idea of 566 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,200 Speaker 1: it produces a lot of other things. It has value 567 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:13,160 Speaker 1: in itself. So commodity money itself has been around for 568 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,920 Speaker 1: a long long time. And incidentally, we get a couple 569 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:20,640 Speaker 1: of modern terms, modern monetary terms, from commodity money. So 570 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:25,479 Speaker 1: the first, the Latin word for cattle is pecus, and 571 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: that's from that we get our modern word pecuniary, which 572 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:31,680 Speaker 1: means of or relating to money. I'm not gonna lie, 573 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:33,600 Speaker 1: I've never heard of that word before in my life. 574 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: But you could say you're in you're having pecuniary difficulties. 575 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: You could I'm having understanding what pecunity means. Pecuniary. Yeah, 576 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,160 Speaker 1: it's not a it's perhaps not a word you'd use 577 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,400 Speaker 1: every day, but it's certain certainly a it's certainly a word. 578 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:54,040 Speaker 1: It's certainly a word. Yeah yeah. Now another popular commodity 579 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:57,760 Speaker 1: that was used as money it was salt, and salt 580 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:02,000 Speaker 1: has certain advantages. It's fairly easy to transport, it lasts 581 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: a long time unless you sort of unless you soak 582 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:06,320 Speaker 1: it in water. So as long as you can keep 583 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,160 Speaker 1: it dry, it can hold its value over time. I 584 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:13,520 Speaker 1: don't think salt goes off. I think so. And it 585 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 1: can also be quite usefully divided into smaller amounts, so 586 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,799 Speaker 1: you can weigh out a certain number a certain weight 587 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,920 Speaker 1: of salt m. So you know, you wouldn't have to 588 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: hand over an entire bag of salt. You could wait 589 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:31,920 Speaker 1: out to smaller amounts. So exactly, exactly. Um. Now, obviously 590 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 1: salt is kind of valuable in and of itself because 591 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 1: you can flavor food with it, and also I think 592 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:41,480 Speaker 1: crucially in in more preserve exactly. Yeah. So it's not 593 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: only a valuable commodity, but it also form fills the 594 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,960 Speaker 1: role of commodity money quite well. And we get another 595 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: popular word for this. So the Latin word for salt 596 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:56,240 Speaker 1: is salas, and from that we get our word salary, 597 00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,279 Speaker 1: which is I think a word that you probably a 598 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,239 Speaker 1: little more from me you with I have heard of that? Yeah? Um? 599 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:07,479 Speaker 1: And interestingly enough, Roman legionaries were quite often paid part 600 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: of their wages in salt. That's interesting. Yeah, not that 601 00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 1: everything else hasn't been. I mean that's the first bit 602 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: I've gone. Okay, I'm gonna repeat that down the pub. 603 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: That's the first bit that's been Really, do you know 604 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,239 Speaker 1: what salary means? Do you know what you get to? 605 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:26,160 Speaker 1: It was quite a peculiarly term. Have you said that right? Yes? 606 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:31,600 Speaker 1: Well it's quite a what term? But sorry, what was that, Mike? 607 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,919 Speaker 1: But prefer prefer have that five salts? You salis salt, 608 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,600 Speaker 1: Give me some salt. So let's think about some other 609 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:43,520 Speaker 1: early forms of money. Another one was cowary shells. Cowries 610 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: are a species of c snail, and cowery shells are 611 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,400 Speaker 1: known to have been used as money in China I 612 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: think as far back as around twelve BC, and apparently 613 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 1: when I was researching this also apparently in parts of 614 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: East Africa up until about the lee cells shells exactly. Um, 615 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:08,040 Speaker 1: and the Linnaean or the zoological term for carries is 616 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: monteria montaria manetta, which is where money comes from. Well, 617 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:17,840 Speaker 1: I think the term money the term monetta again is 618 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:24,480 Speaker 1: Latin monetary. Yeah, but Juno, the Roman goddess Juno was 619 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: known as Juno Monetta, and she was sort of associated 620 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,600 Speaker 1: with money, and that's where we get words like monetary 621 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,000 Speaker 1: and also the word mint. Okay, so not from this thing, 622 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,200 Speaker 1: not from this no bit, But listeners, don't listen to 623 00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:41,799 Speaker 1: my mine, which listen he's speculating. I'm just here to 624 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,360 Speaker 1: bounce off. He's the smart one. I'm the idiot in 625 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,960 Speaker 1: a situation to make you feel better, quite thanks for 626 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: something that up for the listeners like. Um, so yes, 627 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:57,840 Speaker 1: the Linnaean or zoological term for carries is monterio, monetta, money, money, 628 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:03,080 Speaker 1: moneamed it twice. So what are Another popular form of 629 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 1: money in Africa many many centuries ago was agri bead. 630 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:11,280 Speaker 1: Agary beads were popular in Africa. They were decorated beads 631 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,919 Speaker 1: made mainly from glass um and they could be sort 632 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,279 Speaker 1: of strung together to make jewelry. And I think they 633 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:19,600 Speaker 1: were thought to have sort of magical and or medicinal properties, 634 00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,719 Speaker 1: so they were highly prized in Africa. Um. But the 635 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: problem was that because glassmaking technology in Africa was very limited, 636 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,239 Speaker 1: they obviously had value there because they were rare, but 637 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:36,000 Speaker 1: when traders from Europe came along and encountered these agory beads, 638 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,440 Speaker 1: they realized that they could make them a lot cheaper 639 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,680 Speaker 1: back home because obviously glassmaking this idea again of money 640 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:46,440 Speaker 1: as an evolving technology, glassmaking was a lot more advanced 641 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,280 Speaker 1: in Europe. So when they came back, they suddenly had 642 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,279 Speaker 1: all these lots of agary beads. But they were quite 643 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:56,080 Speaker 1: clever about it. I think they didn't flood the market exactly. Yeah, 644 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,200 Speaker 1: they sort of introduced them in dribs and drabs, So 645 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,760 Speaker 1: they didn't they They knew that if they suddenly turned 646 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:07,000 Speaker 1: up with sacks of these things, then they would arouse suspicion, 647 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,279 Speaker 1: but also they would have the effect of devaluing the 648 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,920 Speaker 1: currency completely, so they introduced it very gradually. Um and 649 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,560 Speaker 1: the and the tragic consequences of this obviously that they 650 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:20,720 Speaker 1: were able to acquire resources lands et cetera from tragic 651 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:25,399 Speaker 1: for who, well, tragic people who got taken fleeced, Yes, 652 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:27,600 Speaker 1: trend yeah, fleast And if you're the one with the 653 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,480 Speaker 1: gold be it's it's pretty pretty great. Yeah, yeah, it 654 00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:34,720 Speaker 1: had pretty it had pretty dire consequence. I think probably 655 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:36,520 Speaker 1: this sort of helped at some point to kind of 656 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,480 Speaker 1: fuel the slave trade because okay, it gave these Europeans 657 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,359 Speaker 1: a lot of leverage, it made them seem very rich, 658 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,399 Speaker 1: whereas in actual fact they were just manufacturing these very 659 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,800 Speaker 1: easily back home. So that's a that's a good example 660 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,759 Speaker 1: of money as a tech evolving and those on the 661 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:57,440 Speaker 1: right side of it, those sort of those who were 662 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,120 Speaker 1: the more advanced tech were able to take advantage of 663 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,719 Speaker 1: those with less advanced tech. Now there's one more primitive 664 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:05,440 Speaker 1: form of money. I mean, there are tons of different 665 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,720 Speaker 1: tons of different commodities used as money all over the world. 666 00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,839 Speaker 1: But the last one that I want to talk about 667 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:14,200 Speaker 1: the last form of primitive money, which bitcoin us and 668 00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,520 Speaker 1: love um and this is very relevant to to crypto 669 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,799 Speaker 1: and will kind of maybe talk about this today but 670 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,399 Speaker 1: maybe under another episode as well. But the last form 671 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,960 Speaker 1: of primitive money is rye stones. Now, these were a 672 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:31,759 Speaker 1: currency used on the Pacific island of Yap and these 673 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 1: were enormous, well not all of them enormous, but these 674 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,440 Speaker 1: were pieces of limestone that cut in a circle, cutting 675 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:41,680 Speaker 1: a big disc with a hole in the middle. And 676 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:45,040 Speaker 1: these pieces of limestone could only be quarried. They weren't. 677 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,120 Speaker 1: They weren't available on the island itself. They could only 678 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:50,839 Speaker 1: be quarried from nearby islands. I think one was called 679 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:55,080 Speaker 1: I think that nearby islands of Palau and Guam, which 680 00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:59,840 Speaker 1: were about three or four hundred miles away by canoe. 681 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:05,000 Speaker 1: So these they thought short and supply then, yeah, exactly exactly. 682 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:09,880 Speaker 1: So these these rice stones were quarried and manufactured, if 683 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,440 Speaker 1: you like, on these neighboring islands, brought over by canoe, 684 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,600 Speaker 1: and then value was attached to them, and they served 685 00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:22,040 Speaker 1: as a form of currency because people would exchange them. 686 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,680 Speaker 1: But because they were so big, I mean, they ranged 687 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 1: in size. Some were some were sort of relatively small, yeah, 688 00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:35,359 Speaker 1: something like that. Um, I see that, I see that. Look, 689 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,759 Speaker 1: some were relatively small and others were huge, others were 690 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,560 Speaker 1: Others were up to about sort of almost three meters across. Yeah. 691 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,799 Speaker 1: So these rice stones were then exchanged, they were used 692 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,759 Speaker 1: as a form of currency, but they weren't interchanged. They 693 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,160 Speaker 1: just stayed where they were. And the biggest ones, especially 694 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,279 Speaker 1: were in sort of communal areas. It's sort of in 695 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,239 Speaker 1: the center of villages or in I think they were 696 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,400 Speaker 1: dancing grounds, you know, where the islands are kind of 697 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:05,360 Speaker 1: gather to have massive parties nightclub exactly, the local nightclub. 698 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,160 Speaker 1: And these rice stones were there and what and the 699 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,759 Speaker 1: way they worked is that they were exchanged, they they 700 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:14,879 Speaker 1: they they their owners changed over time as things were 701 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:17,480 Speaker 1: bought with them, you know, maybe a house or used 702 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:21,760 Speaker 1: again as a dowry, and the Islanders remembered who owned 703 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:26,240 Speaker 1: which stones. And this was this was an amazing form 704 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,839 Speaker 1: of hard money because it was very difficult to come by. 705 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,200 Speaker 1: You You couldn't you couldn't easily produce more of them 706 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,560 Speaker 1: unless you were willing to make a hundreds of mile 707 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:39,239 Speaker 1: round trip with a potentially enormous piece of stone. So 708 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:42,920 Speaker 1: getting them from making them in the first place, quarrying 709 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:44,880 Speaker 1: them in the first place, and getting them over to 710 00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:48,719 Speaker 1: Yap was an extremely difficult undertaking. Why bitcoin is love 711 00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:51,399 Speaker 1: it because it's it's such a lot to mind one 712 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:55,040 Speaker 1: bitcoin exactly exactly. It's it's a it's a form of 713 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:58,920 Speaker 1: it there while you dance around your computer exactly, I 714 00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,520 Speaker 1: mean that's what I do. That's what you if you 715 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,319 Speaker 1: found that you'd mind a bit get Spotify one, get 716 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,239 Speaker 1: the bitcoins out, have a little boogie. Who could blame you? 717 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,880 Speaker 1: So yes, So these rice stones. These were kind of 718 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,279 Speaker 1: a form of hard money. They were a commodity. They 719 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,640 Speaker 1: were very difficult to flood the market with, and there 720 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,879 Speaker 1: are there are stories, I think one they were transporting 721 00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,400 Speaker 1: one particularly big one across and it fell out of 722 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:31,120 Speaker 1: the canoe in the shallows um and sank to the 723 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,040 Speaker 1: sank to the bottom. But they still were able to 724 00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:35,759 Speaker 1: use it as a form of money because they went, 725 00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,120 Speaker 1: that's mine there, and then they just remembered that even 726 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,719 Speaker 1: though it was sitting there, no one could move it, 727 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:43,960 Speaker 1: no one could nick it because it was just that big. Yeah, 728 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,280 Speaker 1: how did they get it in there? Well, it needed 729 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:48,319 Speaker 1: a lot of people too, It needed a lot of 730 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,400 Speaker 1: people to to move these things around, which again was 731 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:53,000 Speaker 1: why it's so why it's so so great as a 732 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,120 Speaker 1: form of money. Is that is that ry stone still there? 733 00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,920 Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, And I think you'd have to 734 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,640 Speaker 1: take that up. I think you'd have to take that 735 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,279 Speaker 1: up with the with the yapp, with the app islanders themselves. Yes, 736 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,719 Speaker 1: so rice stones were a great form of currency. They 737 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:09,399 Speaker 1: were too heavy to move, They sat where they were, 738 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,960 Speaker 1: usually somewhere prominent, and the islanders remembered who it was 739 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,480 Speaker 1: who owned them, and they could then be exchanged for 740 00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,480 Speaker 1: goods used in dowries, and the ownership simply transferred. So 741 00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:20,440 Speaker 1: it's not a case of me having to physically give 742 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,560 Speaker 1: you the stone. We just and I think the village 743 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,239 Speaker 1: elders would sort of gather and everyone kind of make 744 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:29,279 Speaker 1: a mental note. They go, right, that's now Mad Mike 745 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:33,960 Speaker 1: stone guy has given Mad Mike this stone every time 746 00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:37,520 Speaker 1: he did had one of these transactions. It was quite 747 00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: a big deal. Mm hmm. Not necessarily. I think they 748 00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,000 Speaker 1: could be used, that the smaller rice stones could be 749 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:49,759 Speaker 1: used for smaller transactions. But again, they just break off 750 00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,359 Speaker 1: bits of r I think they had to. I would 751 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,040 Speaker 1: imagine that they had to be intact, you know, you 752 00:43:55,040 --> 00:44:03,520 Speaker 1: couldn't just I need some change of bashion. But yeah, 753 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:06,720 Speaker 1: and then there's the story of an Irish American captain. 754 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,520 Speaker 1: And well, I should say also they worked great as 755 00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:11,600 Speaker 1: a store of value because they're stones, so they don't 756 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:14,960 Speaker 1: rot or degrade, and they're still there. You can go 757 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:17,279 Speaker 1: to you can go to Yap today and these rice 758 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,520 Speaker 1: stones are sitting around and I think there that the 759 00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:22,399 Speaker 1: ownership of them is still known, and I think when 760 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,279 Speaker 1: I was searching this again, they are still occasionally used 761 00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:28,000 Speaker 1: I mean the the Yap Island has now used the dollar, 762 00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:31,320 Speaker 1: the U. S Dollar like like so many other people. 763 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,719 Speaker 1: But rice stones are still used as a form of 764 00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:38,120 Speaker 1: currency and only rised on to the dollar that I'm 765 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:41,560 Speaker 1: not sure quite quite a few, I imagine. I don't 766 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,640 Speaker 1: know what the exchange rate is like, but I don't 767 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,000 Speaker 1: know if that's a currency pair and often traded currency. Well, 768 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: next time you're in Yap. I didn't think I'd like 769 00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:56,520 Speaker 1: to yap the beds dons. So all these what we 770 00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,120 Speaker 1: could call primitive forms of money were useful for a time, 771 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:03,000 Speaker 1: but they're value tended to be undermined by advances in 772 00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 1: technology and the growth of more complex economy. So we 773 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:10,279 Speaker 1: saw with the agriy beads, dastardly Europeans figured out that 774 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:12,520 Speaker 1: they had better glass making so they could just manufacture 775 00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:14,840 Speaker 1: the beads, and actually with the rice stones of Yap. 776 00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:17,759 Speaker 1: There was a story about an Irish American captain called 777 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:21,000 Speaker 1: David O'Keeffe who was washed ashore on Yap. I think 778 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,920 Speaker 1: he was shipwrecked and the Yap Island has sort of 779 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,360 Speaker 1: picked him, scraped him off off off the beach and 780 00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:29,480 Speaker 1: saved his life, and he spent some time on the 781 00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:31,920 Speaker 1: island and realized how they were shown how they were 782 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,880 Speaker 1: using these stones. So as a way of showing his 783 00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,560 Speaker 1: gratitude to he decided that he was going to try 784 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:46,279 Speaker 1: and use dynamite. He thought, he thought, I tell you, 785 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,120 Speaker 1: I know how I get I know what I can do. 786 00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:51,040 Speaker 1: I can go to Palau or Guam and I can 787 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,560 Speaker 1: use dynamite to easily make some more, to easily get 788 00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:58,040 Speaker 1: some limestone, make some more. And I think his idea 789 00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 1: was that he wanted to import. He wants to export 790 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:05,040 Speaker 1: coconuts from Yap two Um. I don't know where it 791 00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:07,600 Speaker 1: was exactly, but he wanted to export coconuts in order 792 00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:10,279 Speaker 1: to make coconut oil. So he went and got some 793 00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:14,160 Speaker 1: dynamite and he made some ryce stones, and then he 794 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:18,280 Speaker 1: went back over to Yap and he presented these these 795 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,920 Speaker 1: new stones, was like, right, give me a coconuts. And 796 00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,160 Speaker 1: I think the the the chiefs, the island chiefs sort 797 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:27,359 Speaker 1: of realized what he'd done and went right, No one 798 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,880 Speaker 1: except these stones. And but a few of the islanders 799 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:33,160 Speaker 1: were convinced, you know, sort of kind of human greed 800 00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:37,680 Speaker 1: took over um, and we're convinced to accept them and 801 00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:41,080 Speaker 1: to work you know, making harvesting coconuts for this guy. 802 00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:44,200 Speaker 1: And at that point, I think the kind of that 803 00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:46,799 Speaker 1: the rice stones as as an as an economy kind 804 00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:48,799 Speaker 1: of fell apart a little bit and that was sort 805 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:51,839 Speaker 1: of the beginning beginning of the end for them as 806 00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:54,759 Speaker 1: as a viable form of currency. And obviously at this 807 00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,440 Speaker 1: point the world was opening up a lot more and 808 00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:03,080 Speaker 1: and visiting, you know, the wider. The wider economy was affected, 809 00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:05,880 Speaker 1: so it's arguable how long they would have actually lasted for. 810 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:08,200 Speaker 1: But it's a great example of sort of a new 811 00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:11,960 Speaker 1: technology turning up. And obviously it's some some dastardly Westerner. 812 00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:14,680 Speaker 1: I think this was in you know, this was sometime 813 00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:18,680 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century. Um, but yeah, some dastardly western 814 00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:23,839 Speaker 1: are turning up with dynamite and technology. Just right, I'm 815 00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:27,320 Speaker 1: going to use this dynamite to make myself some money. Um. 816 00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:29,960 Speaker 1: And yes, so where's these old forms these older forms 817 00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:32,720 Speaker 1: of money? Whereas before they were rare and hard to obtain, 818 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,000 Speaker 1: like the stones or like the beads if you didn't 819 00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,960 Speaker 1: have the glass making technology. This the the technological advantages 820 00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:42,680 Speaker 1: made them easier to get hold of and thus less valuable. 821 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,200 Speaker 1: So um, when we talk about the we're going to 822 00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,360 Speaker 1: talk I think in general about the continued sort of 823 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:51,560 Speaker 1: evolution of money here. And this is a very general 824 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,520 Speaker 1: overview you know that we're involved in here. We're not 825 00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: going to go too exhaustive, but kind of the next step, um, 826 00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:01,640 Speaker 1: is going to be metal money. Now you yeah, you 827 00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:05,600 Speaker 1: mentioned this earlier. So um, this idea commodity money is 828 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:07,840 Speaker 1: pretty old. The idea of the idea of paying for 829 00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:10,480 Speaker 1: things with other things that have value. But the practice 830 00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,399 Speaker 1: of using precious metals like gold and silver, as well 831 00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:15,880 Speaker 1: as kind of less precious ones like copper and bronze, 832 00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:18,719 Speaker 1: has been around for I think over about over four 833 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:24,120 Speaker 1: thousand years. There's evidence going back going back to times 834 00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:28,240 Speaker 1: of the Egyptians and possibly even before. So metal money 835 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:30,600 Speaker 1: has been around for a long time. And I think 836 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,400 Speaker 1: one of the earliest is there's evidence that lumps of 837 00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:37,640 Speaker 1: silver were used approved by the state in Cappadocia, which 838 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:41,439 Speaker 1: is sort of modern day Turkey, um from around sort 839 00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:48,840 Speaker 1: of so these these soil they weren't necessarily made into 840 00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:51,280 Speaker 1: coins or anything like that, but yeah, lumps of silver 841 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:54,680 Speaker 1: that could then be used by weight, um. And so 842 00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:57,960 Speaker 1: there's evidence of that and actually banks even pre date, 843 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,480 Speaker 1: predate even coinage, because the first ones appeared around three 844 00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:05,800 Speaker 1: thousand BC in Mesopotamia, which is obviously modern day Iraq 845 00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:09,200 Speaker 1: and Syria and and quwait Um. And these would have 846 00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:13,600 Speaker 1: been used to store commodities like cattle, grain, silver, gold, whatever. 847 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,960 Speaker 1: So banks have been around almost as long as as 848 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:22,000 Speaker 1: money itself. And then from around kind of seven hundred BC, 849 00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:25,160 Speaker 1: we see coins begin to emerge and they're made of 850 00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:31,319 Speaker 1: silver or gold, sometimes both metal substance called electrom which 851 00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:35,279 Speaker 1: is a mixture of silver and gold um. And they 852 00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:37,680 Speaker 1: were originally graded by weight. And you remember when we 853 00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:41,360 Speaker 1: were talking about money as a technology earlier, basic metallurgy 854 00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:43,440 Speaker 1: would have been would meant that they were able to 855 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,000 Speaker 1: able to get lumps of metal to sort of weigh 856 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,439 Speaker 1: roughly the same. So you had had had a few 857 00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,880 Speaker 1: sort of lumps of gold or silver or whatever, and 858 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:54,640 Speaker 1: then you would have weighed them out and countered them 859 00:49:54,640 --> 00:50:00,160 Speaker 1: out like that. Silver became quite popular around this time. 860 00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:03,440 Speaker 1: It became more popular because it was more plentiful. It's 861 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:06,319 Speaker 1: still kind of rare metal, it doesn't it's it's not 862 00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,400 Speaker 1: just kind of lying around, but it's a bit more 863 00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:13,000 Speaker 1: plentiful than gold, and it was therefore less valuable, and 864 00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:15,319 Speaker 1: this was useful because you could use it for sort 865 00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:19,280 Speaker 1: of smaller transactions, because again, handing over a quantity of gold, 866 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:22,560 Speaker 1: you can only I guess, divide a lump of gold 867 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,160 Speaker 1: so much until you're sort of dealing with dealing with 868 00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:30,200 Speaker 1: impractical amounts towns and pens, dollars and cents exactly exactly, um. 869 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:33,560 Speaker 1: And the first round coins they believe emerged in China 870 00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:36,400 Speaker 1: around six BC, but they were made of kind of 871 00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:39,719 Speaker 1: non precious metal, so maybe copper, and their value was 872 00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:43,520 Speaker 1: actually the metal itself, so you know that copper obviously 873 00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:45,839 Speaker 1: has has many uses, so they'd hand over these sort 874 00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:48,960 Speaker 1: of coins, and then they're valuable because copper itself is valuable. 875 00:50:49,120 --> 00:50:52,120 Speaker 1: So it's kind of an overlap of commodity money and 876 00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,600 Speaker 1: metal money, Copper for very small transactions, silver for slightly 877 00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:57,800 Speaker 1: larger transactions. And obviously we can see this as a 878 00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:01,400 Speaker 1: parallel with our with our own currency to coins today. 879 00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:05,359 Speaker 1: And then gold obviously became better for higher value transactions, 880 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,680 Speaker 1: and also gold keeps better than any other metal. Copper 881 00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:13,719 Speaker 1: obviously tarnishes, green oxidizes exactly, silver tarnishes as well. I mean, 882 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:16,640 Speaker 1: it's still pretty durable, but not as durable as gold. 883 00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:21,000 Speaker 1: I mean gold. I love gold. Gold lasts I mean 884 00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:25,120 Speaker 1: pretty much forever. And this was great because it meant 885 00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:28,880 Speaker 1: that gold fulfilled this idea of a store of value 886 00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:33,000 Speaker 1: better than anything, because people now had the ability to 887 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:36,200 Speaker 1: store their wealth over generations. They knew that it wouldn't rot, 888 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:38,239 Speaker 1: it wouldn't degrade, so long as they held onto it. 889 00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:40,799 Speaker 1: They knew that that it would it would still be 890 00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:44,719 Speaker 1: worth money. Further down the road, then, around e d 891 00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:48,080 Speaker 1: I about a thousand years later, the emperor Hien Sung 892 00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:51,360 Speaker 1: began issuing paper money, and this was apparently in response 893 00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:54,240 Speaker 1: to a shortage of copper, which, as we as we mentioned, 894 00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:56,720 Speaker 1: was sort of being used to make most Chinese coins, 895 00:51:56,719 --> 00:51:59,520 Speaker 1: so he kind of right, okay, well think paper instead. 896 00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:04,000 Speaker 1: And this, you could argue, is perhaps the early birth 897 00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:08,319 Speaker 1: of fiat money. Money issued without anything physical backing it, 898 00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:11,200 Speaker 1: and valuable because the powers that be deem it to 899 00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:13,440 Speaker 1: be so. So in this case, the emperor going right, 900 00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,160 Speaker 1: here's some paper money is valuable because I say it's valuable. 901 00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:18,360 Speaker 1: It's not tied to any sort of metal or anything 902 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:21,239 Speaker 1: like that. Just trust me, yeah, exactly, Just do what 903 00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:24,799 Speaker 1: you're told, or I or someone close to me, We'll 904 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:28,640 Speaker 1: get their sword out, yes, Um. And the printing of 905 00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:31,320 Speaker 1: this paper money seems to have gotten out of control, 906 00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:34,560 Speaker 1: causing inflation. And obviously the more money that you print, 907 00:52:34,719 --> 00:52:39,920 Speaker 1: the less valuable it becomes. Mr. So, how could you so? 908 00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,680 Speaker 1: And the Chinese again stopped using paper money around about 909 00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:47,520 Speaker 1: the fourteen hundreds, and it seems to have re emerged 910 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:52,080 Speaker 1: in Britain around the sixteen hundreds. Banks began storing coins 911 00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:55,200 Speaker 1: in their vault and they issued notes in lieu of them. 912 00:52:55,239 --> 00:52:58,120 Speaker 1: It was a bit like a receipt and exactly so, 913 00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:01,360 Speaker 1: if you took your money to a bank in Um 914 00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,160 Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century in Britain and you put in 915 00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:06,920 Speaker 1: a whole load of gold, they go, thank you very much, Mike. 916 00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,320 Speaker 1: We will give you. We'll give you your receipt for 917 00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,240 Speaker 1: let's say, let's say you deposited ten pounds of gold. 918 00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:14,640 Speaker 1: Here is a receipt for ten pounds of gold that 919 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,239 Speaker 1: in itself isn't much used to you. But you can 920 00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,200 Speaker 1: then trade that with someone else for another receipt, for 921 00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,919 Speaker 1: another receipt, for another piece of paper. Five break break 922 00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:26,080 Speaker 1: the three done to exactly. But yeah, this is so 923 00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:30,319 Speaker 1: we're already getting towards this idea of this paper money 924 00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:33,080 Speaker 1: being issued, but it's being backed by something in a 925 00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:37,160 Speaker 1: bank somewhere, and these receipts are these receipts became a 926 00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:39,600 Speaker 1: kind of currency in themselves, So that was that was 927 00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:42,719 Speaker 1: where we think bank notes sort of evolved from this 928 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:47,840 Speaker 1: idea of banks issuing receipts um. Then the Bank of 929 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:51,840 Speaker 1: England issued kind of smaller denomination bank notes in response 930 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,959 Speaker 1: there was a shortage of gold bullion. I'm not quite 931 00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,320 Speaker 1: sure why, but yeah, they issue so they realized that 932 00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,319 Speaker 1: there's no point everyone trading with notes need to get 933 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:05,560 Speaker 1: some smaller ones. So again we see this idea of 934 00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,560 Speaker 1: money as a technology. The emergence of paper money is 935 00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:13,000 Speaker 1: kind of another technological leap forward. It enables larger sums 936 00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:15,960 Speaker 1: to be traded and money to be more easily transported 937 00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:17,759 Speaker 1: because it's much easier to to take a load of 938 00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:20,719 Speaker 1: paper and go across the channel on a booze cruise. Say, 939 00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:23,080 Speaker 1: then it would be to take a massive sack of 940 00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:26,879 Speaker 1: gold coins. Not good, Yeah, no, no space in your 941 00:54:26,920 --> 00:54:30,360 Speaker 1: swim shorts exactly exactly. You would have Yeah, you wouldn't 942 00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:33,239 Speaker 1: have been able to can't swim with gold in your pockets. Yeah, 943 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,400 Speaker 1: and I I mean I presume there were kind of 944 00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:37,600 Speaker 1: weight restrictions on the ships, like it would have been 945 00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:40,920 Speaker 1: on can you empty your pockets? What does all this? 946 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:45,759 Speaker 1: The metal detective exactly? Those seventeenth century metal detectives were 947 00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,239 Speaker 1: picked it up and gone crazy. So again, but with 948 00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:51,400 Speaker 1: like as with any new technology, as it develops, it 949 00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:55,279 Speaker 1: becomes more useful but also more dangerous. And of course 950 00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:59,160 Speaker 1: paper money must have been a whole lot easier to forge. Yeah, 951 00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:01,799 Speaker 1: and I'm sure plenty of people sort of looked at 952 00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:06,480 Speaker 1: those bank receipts and went, I can make one of these, um. 953 00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:09,359 Speaker 1: And obviously if you do this, then more money sort 954 00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,040 Speaker 1: of gets flooded into the system, even though it's not 955 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:15,160 Speaker 1: not technically worth anything, and this devalues the currency as 956 00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:17,279 Speaker 1: a whole. And I guess it's worth pointing out here 957 00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:21,560 Speaker 1: that historically the penalties for forgery have been very, very harsh, 958 00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:25,799 Speaker 1: and I think in sort of medieval medieval times, um 959 00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:28,640 Speaker 1: forges sort of met pretty sticky ends, like you know, 960 00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:30,680 Speaker 1: burned at the stake or whatever like that, and up 961 00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:34,040 Speaker 1: until not a fine, no, there was no sort of 962 00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:37,319 Speaker 1: slap on the wrist. Some paper I can give you. 963 00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:42,080 Speaker 1: How about it? Just how about we make this go away? 964 00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:47,400 Speaker 1: Do you like turnips? That? I haven't got that many chickens? 965 00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:51,200 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Um, And yet more laws. This is an 966 00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,520 Speaker 1: interesting fact. More laws against forgery were passed in Britain 967 00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:57,680 Speaker 1: in the early eighteenth century than against any other type 968 00:55:57,719 --> 00:56:01,360 Speaker 1: of crime. So they were kind of constantly as money 969 00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:04,960 Speaker 1: was evolving really quickly, they were the issues. Yeah, exactly, 970 00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:08,319 Speaker 1: And as with any technology, the criminals were always kind 971 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:10,880 Speaker 1: of one step ahead, you guess, So they were constantly 972 00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:14,319 Speaker 1: having to issue laws. And yeah, that there was the 973 00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:17,800 Speaker 1: death penalty for forgery was still was still in place 974 00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:23,120 Speaker 1: for a long long time, not until that not No, yeah, 975 00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:28,040 Speaker 1: those damn forges. Yeah, it means a sticky end. So 976 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:30,960 Speaker 1: at this point I think we should talk about the 977 00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:35,040 Speaker 1: role of the state UM in issuing and regulating the 978 00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:37,040 Speaker 1: money supply. I can see you, I can see your 979 00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:42,520 Speaker 1: face there, the state guys. So by the time going 980 00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:44,759 Speaker 1: back to going back to coinage, going back to the 981 00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:48,320 Speaker 1: issuing of coinage, by the time it's widespread, most humans 982 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:51,640 Speaker 1: are living in pretty clearly defined states or kingdoms, and 983 00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:55,560 Speaker 1: they're ruled by some governing body or another UM. And 984 00:56:56,239 --> 00:56:59,759 Speaker 1: ever since we've been using money. Governments, kings, emperors, whatever 985 00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:04,719 Speaker 1: they be, have understood that controlling the money supply is 986 00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:08,319 Speaker 1: a big part of wielding power. Money is power. So 987 00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:11,240 Speaker 1: if you yeah, if you control the supply of money, 988 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:15,600 Speaker 1: then you then you control your citizens. Um. So this 989 00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:20,360 Speaker 1: is why coins traditionally have the sovereign's head on them, serving, 990 00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:23,600 Speaker 1: you know, as a marketing exactly. It's kind yeah, it's marketing. 991 00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:26,840 Speaker 1: It's marking your territory. It's going, hey, I'm in charge. 992 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,040 Speaker 1: Do you know why? Because that's my face, my face 993 00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:33,040 Speaker 1: and the money. Man. When your faces and the money, 994 00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:36,120 Speaker 1: you could do whatever you want, and it probably gave them. 995 00:57:36,280 --> 00:57:40,120 Speaker 1: Now give me my turnip, no more turnips than that, 996 00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:45,880 Speaker 1: and your chicken and your sister. It would have been Yeah, 997 00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:48,840 Speaker 1: it would have been a good sort of claim, wouldn't it. 998 00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:51,720 Speaker 1: You think it would be much easier to get money 999 00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:53,640 Speaker 1: out of people if you go, yeah, give me your money, 1000 00:57:53,640 --> 00:57:57,200 Speaker 1: because that's mine, it's got my face technically, yeah, technically 1001 00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:00,520 Speaker 1: handed over. Yeah. I mean I can't imagine in our 1002 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:04,560 Speaker 1: queen doing that. I mean, she famously doesn't carry cash, 1003 00:58:04,840 --> 00:58:08,360 Speaker 1: she does need to, she is she is take a selfie? 1004 00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:10,440 Speaker 1: Do you take that? There? You go. Do you think 1005 00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:12,240 Speaker 1: she just goes into a shop and sort of stands 1006 00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:18,240 Speaker 1: in profile, you know, I mean, you've got it on 1007 00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:20,760 Speaker 1: a piece of paper. The real things here, that's believe, 1008 00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:24,000 Speaker 1: that's mine. That's definitely worth fifty quid. And so the 1009 00:58:24,080 --> 00:58:27,240 Speaker 1: stronger the bond between the state and money, the greater 1010 00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:29,240 Speaker 1: power the state is able to wield. And I guess 1011 00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:30,920 Speaker 1: that one of the best examples of this is the 1012 00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:33,640 Speaker 1: Roman Empire. And one of the reasons that Rome was 1013 00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:37,440 Speaker 1: so strong for so long was because it had a 1014 00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:41,120 Speaker 1: it had a stable monetary system um and so it's 1015 00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,560 Speaker 1: citizens Romans were able to kind of go out across 1016 00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:48,520 Speaker 1: the empire and spend an amass wealth and and project 1017 00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:52,919 Speaker 1: Rome's power in that way. And the relationship between money 1018 00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:55,200 Speaker 1: and the state has only kind of grown over time. 1019 00:58:55,760 --> 00:58:59,840 Speaker 1: The state guarantees money by putting its its weight and 1020 00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:02,440 Speaker 1: power behind it. And again this is the eye. This 1021 00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:05,520 Speaker 1: kind of feeds into the idea of fiat money, modern 1022 00:59:05,560 --> 00:59:09,080 Speaker 1: day money. It's valuable because the state with all its power, 1023 00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:14,240 Speaker 1: with all its fighter jets and policemen, with clubs and 1024 00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:17,440 Speaker 1: aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons and all this sort of stuff. 1025 00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:19,800 Speaker 1: It's that idea that that is that what's backing up 1026 00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:23,880 Speaker 1: the currency. That is why it's powerful. However, when the 1027 00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:27,920 Speaker 1: state goes rogue and devalues the currency, then it's power 1028 00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,000 Speaker 1: begins to wane. And again this was seen with Rome 1029 00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:34,200 Speaker 1: because Julius Caesar introduced a coin called the Aureus, which 1030 00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:36,960 Speaker 1: had eight grams of gold in it, so it was standardized. 1031 00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:41,440 Speaker 1: And obviously by this point metallurgy has got metal, metal 1032 00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:44,320 Speaker 1: working technology has become advanced, so it's easy to produce 1033 00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:48,280 Speaker 1: standardized coins. They're all the same size weight look, and 1034 00:59:48,360 --> 00:59:50,880 Speaker 1: this particular areas had eight grams and eight grams of 1035 00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:54,520 Speaker 1: gold in it, and this maintained and helped create nearly 1036 00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:57,800 Speaker 1: a century of financial stability. Around this time, people could 1037 00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:00,919 Speaker 1: trust the money they knew, they knew what it was worth, 1038 01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:03,760 Speaker 1: they knew that they could that they by having by 1039 01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:06,000 Speaker 1: owning one of these coins, they had eight grams of 1040 01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:08,560 Speaker 1: gold or however much it was, and this put in 1041 01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:13,280 Speaker 1: a sense of real financial stability. However, then after Caesar 1042 01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:17,280 Speaker 1: died a while later, nit Emperor Nero came along, and 1043 01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:21,280 Speaker 1: you don't need sort of great historical knowledge to know 1044 01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:23,120 Speaker 1: that he was one of the bad guys. He's a 1045 01:00:23,160 --> 01:00:26,960 Speaker 1: guy who fiddled while Rome burned. Have you heard that? 1046 01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:30,280 Speaker 1: I have? Yeah, so Nero was also did he made 1047 01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:34,080 Speaker 1: some great dub step? Yeah he did. Yeah, yeah that 1048 01:00:34,280 --> 01:00:41,720 Speaker 1: that that will probably fly over there, not in steps scene, 1049 01:00:41,800 --> 01:00:46,000 Speaker 1: but yeah. But one of Nero's great mistakes was to 1050 01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:50,880 Speaker 1: pioneer what's known as coin clipping, so this in this case, 1051 01:00:51,040 --> 01:00:54,760 Speaker 1: and he collected coins. He amassed the coins that were 1052 01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:58,200 Speaker 1: that were in use, melted them down, and then minted 1053 01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:01,760 Speaker 1: new ones. But these contained lower amounts of gold and silver, 1054 01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:05,040 Speaker 1: so he was able to make more money, but it 1055 01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:07,600 Speaker 1: was de valued. And how did people know the just 1056 01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:10,440 Speaker 1: with the devalued stuff and the valued stuff, Well, there 1057 01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:13,280 Speaker 1: are quite a few. I mean, in some ways people 1058 01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:15,880 Speaker 1: would have noticed. I think for a start, they would 1059 01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:18,440 Speaker 1: have noticed that this coin that they had was lighter. 1060 01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:20,880 Speaker 1: And there are also stories. I think some of them 1061 01:01:20,960 --> 01:01:24,320 Speaker 1: had sort of metal cause like the iron or copper 1062 01:01:24,360 --> 01:01:27,000 Speaker 1: cause so it was gold sort of around them. But 1063 01:01:27,040 --> 01:01:29,120 Speaker 1: as they got used, they kind of wore out, and 1064 01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:31,800 Speaker 1: then people realized that it was just sort of non 1065 01:01:31,840 --> 01:01:34,840 Speaker 1: precious metal in the middle um, and they were of 1066 01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:39,240 Speaker 1: a generally lower quality. So people, um, people came to 1067 01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:44,680 Speaker 1: realize that these coins for less. Yeah, it's the sort 1068 01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:48,120 Speaker 1: of money. But when people realize when this confidence in 1069 01:01:48,160 --> 01:01:53,600 Speaker 1: the currency goes, this again ushered in financial instability, devalued 1070 01:01:53,600 --> 01:01:56,480 Speaker 1: the currency. It was worth less. And although this created 1071 01:01:56,560 --> 01:01:58,960 Speaker 1: more money for the government in the short term, the 1072 01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:01,920 Speaker 1: long term effect was was economic decline. And this was 1073 01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:04,600 Speaker 1: it was not the whole, the sole reason that the 1074 01:02:04,680 --> 01:02:07,760 Speaker 1: Roman Empire fell, but it was one of the It 1075 01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:11,520 Speaker 1: was one of these catalysts, this coin clipping, this devaluing 1076 01:02:11,600 --> 01:02:14,400 Speaker 1: of the money supply, was a major contributing factor to 1077 01:02:14,440 --> 01:02:17,240 Speaker 1: the eventual fall of the Roman Empire, and interestingly, the 1078 01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:21,400 Speaker 1: Emperor Constantine he managed to then restore some stability by 1079 01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:25,280 Speaker 1: promising not to debase the soliders any further. So he went, right, Okay, 1080 01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:27,200 Speaker 1: it's four and a half grounds of gold and it's 1081 01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:30,880 Speaker 1: going to stay like that. Yeah. But he by this 1082 01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:33,600 Speaker 1: point that the empire was under was under sort of 1083 01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:37,880 Speaker 1: pressure from all directions. He moved east to Constantinople, which 1084 01:02:37,960 --> 01:02:41,360 Speaker 1: is now istanical word, which is now a very long word. 1085 01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:44,960 Speaker 1: But he managed to maintain the integrity of the Solidists, 1086 01:02:44,960 --> 01:02:47,560 Speaker 1: and this gradually over time became known as the besant 1087 01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:51,000 Speaker 1: or the pisant Um, and this eastern branch of the 1088 01:02:51,080 --> 01:02:54,680 Speaker 1: Roman Empire, which was centered around Constantinople. It survived a 1089 01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:58,080 Speaker 1: long time after the Western Empire had collapsed. After Rome 1090 01:02:58,120 --> 01:03:01,720 Speaker 1: itself was overrun by the Bybarians. The Eastern Roman Empire 1091 01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:04,640 Speaker 1: survived for many centuries after that, and one of the 1092 01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:07,000 Speaker 1: reasons it was able to do so was because it 1093 01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:11,120 Speaker 1: maintained this financial stability. It maintained the integrity of the 1094 01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:13,560 Speaker 1: money and people could still trust it. The Eastern Roman 1095 01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:17,520 Speaker 1: Empire collapse itself when it began devaluant, devaluing its currency 1096 01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:21,320 Speaker 1: many centuries later, but coin clipping other forms of devaluation 1097 01:03:21,360 --> 01:03:24,680 Speaker 1: have happened many times since um, and it's usually the 1098 01:03:24,720 --> 01:03:29,280 Speaker 1: precursor to something bad. UM. I also want to briefly 1099 01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:31,600 Speaker 1: touch on the idea of Gresham's law, and this is 1100 01:03:31,600 --> 01:03:34,840 Speaker 1: the idea that bad money drives out good And to 1101 01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:37,560 Speaker 1: your point earlier, when you when you asked did people 1102 01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:41,080 Speaker 1: did people notice that these dodgy coins were in circulation? 1103 01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:44,080 Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, they did. And what would happen were 1104 01:03:44,200 --> 01:03:46,919 Speaker 1: that the good coins that were still in circulation, these 1105 01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:50,120 Speaker 1: these ones that still had eight grams of gold in them, 1106 01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:53,040 Speaker 1: they would be hoarded, so that especially the rich would 1107 01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:56,240 Speaker 1: hoard them, and people would spend the bad ones because 1108 01:03:56,240 --> 01:03:57,400 Speaker 1: they want to get rid of them. You know, if 1109 01:03:57,400 --> 01:04:00,600 Speaker 1: you've got a dodgy, if you've got a dodge be like, 1110 01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:05,400 Speaker 1: there you go, I'll pay my fine. Yeah, there you go, 1111 01:04:05,480 --> 01:04:07,600 Speaker 1: not my problem anymore. So people would hoard the good 1112 01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:10,160 Speaker 1: money and spend the bad and this, this kind of 1113 01:04:10,200 --> 01:04:12,640 Speaker 1: hoarding takes money out of the economy, and again it's 1114 01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:15,840 Speaker 1: stifles innovation, stifles trade. I think from all this we 1115 01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:18,280 Speaker 1: can take away the fact that the state can wield 1116 01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:21,880 Speaker 1: power through the currency, but only if the people continue 1117 01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:25,520 Speaker 1: to have confidence in it. So once that currency gets debased, 1118 01:04:25,560 --> 01:04:28,920 Speaker 1: once that trust is gone, then you start having problems. 1119 01:04:28,920 --> 01:04:31,680 Speaker 1: And this is what you see in places like Venezuela nowadays. 1120 01:04:31,680 --> 01:04:35,480 Speaker 1: People have lost all faith Yeah in the it's the 1121 01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:39,400 Speaker 1: Bolivar and Venezuela. They've lost all faith in the Bolivar. 1122 01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:43,400 Speaker 1: And obviously through all this hyper inflation and things like that, 1123 01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:46,040 Speaker 1: and that is why, and that has in turn lead 1124 01:04:46,160 --> 01:04:50,440 Speaker 1: to yet more strife. Should we take another break, Let's 1125 01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:53,040 Speaker 1: let's sell some stuff. Yeah, let's sell some stuff. And 1126 01:04:53,080 --> 01:05:10,840 Speaker 1: now now a message from our sponsors, welcome back. Did 1127 01:05:10,840 --> 01:05:15,520 Speaker 1: you enjoy those messages? Yes? I found them. I found 1128 01:05:15,520 --> 01:05:20,200 Speaker 1: them very enlightening. Let's talk about sound money. So the 1129 01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:23,120 Speaker 1: collapse of the Roman Empires, we've seen it brought about 1130 01:05:23,520 --> 01:05:26,840 Speaker 1: centuries of feudalism and very little in the way of progress. 1131 01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:29,400 Speaker 1: And it was only the advent of the Renaissance that 1132 01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:32,840 Speaker 1: started to see sound money flourish again. This idea of 1133 01:05:32,880 --> 01:05:36,120 Speaker 1: money that is that is that has value, that is 1134 01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:38,120 Speaker 1: backed by the state, that people can have confidence in, 1135 01:05:38,920 --> 01:05:42,360 Speaker 1: and the pioneers of it were Italian city states like 1136 01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:46,320 Speaker 1: Venice and Florence. They had they began producing coins that 1137 01:05:46,480 --> 01:05:49,400 Speaker 1: stuck to very rigid standards, and Venice, I think produced 1138 01:05:49,400 --> 01:05:52,360 Speaker 1: the Ducket, which you will remember from the Merchant of Venice, 1139 01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:58,240 Speaker 1: I know, is your favorite Shakespeare play. Yeah, And Florence 1140 01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:02,120 Speaker 1: produced the Florin from Fluence in the Machine exactly Florence 1141 01:06:02,120 --> 01:06:05,600 Speaker 1: of Florence and the Machine. Yeah. So these standards were 1142 01:06:05,680 --> 01:06:09,080 Speaker 1: slowly replicated across Europe as as more countries began to 1143 01:06:09,120 --> 01:06:11,280 Speaker 1: see as more states began to see the value of them, 1144 01:06:11,480 --> 01:06:14,240 Speaker 1: and trade began to flourish as a result, because people 1145 01:06:14,320 --> 01:06:16,760 Speaker 1: suddenly had confidence in this money again. They knew that 1146 01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:19,280 Speaker 1: it could hold value, they knew that they could use 1147 01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:23,120 Speaker 1: it to exchange. Obviously it was easy to transport. UM. 1148 01:06:23,200 --> 01:06:26,640 Speaker 1: So this period also saw the rise of banking. Obviously 1149 01:06:26,680 --> 01:06:30,360 Speaker 1: banking was nothing new, but this was it began. The 1150 01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:33,160 Speaker 1: technology really began to evolve, and the Medici family in 1151 01:06:33,160 --> 01:06:36,120 Speaker 1: Florence were the sort of pioneers of this. UM. And 1152 01:06:36,160 --> 01:06:39,840 Speaker 1: again we'll talk about banking in the next episode probably 1153 01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:42,960 Speaker 1: and the role that banks play in the economy. But again, 1154 01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:47,160 Speaker 1: this is a technological advance. Money. Yeah, money, money getting 1155 01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:52,000 Speaker 1: more useful. So banking brought more organization to the money system, 1156 01:06:52,080 --> 01:06:55,880 Speaker 1: and it also facilitated things like loans and credit, which 1157 01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:59,000 Speaker 1: in turn promoted growth, trade, exploration, et cetera. And this 1158 01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:03,919 Speaker 1: is why the renaissance. Obviously, UM, things like Columbus's expeditions 1159 01:07:03,920 --> 01:07:06,920 Speaker 1: were financed will be able to be financed by these 1160 01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:09,680 Speaker 1: by these Florentine banks, by the likes of the Medici's 1161 01:07:09,680 --> 01:07:12,520 Speaker 1: as well. I think UM Spain as well was which 1162 01:07:12,600 --> 01:07:14,880 Speaker 1: was quite rich at the time, also financed a lot 1163 01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:17,439 Speaker 1: of these expeditions. But only good came with them as well. 1164 01:07:17,480 --> 01:07:20,920 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, not only good things happen UM. 1165 01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:24,200 Speaker 1: And we also get the rise of central banks later. Now, 1166 01:07:24,240 --> 01:07:27,560 Speaker 1: the first central bank was the Swedish Central Bank, which 1167 01:07:27,600 --> 01:07:30,280 Speaker 1: was in six So we're jumping forward a little bit, 1168 01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:33,480 Speaker 1: but it was actually formed the Swedish REGs Bank called 1169 01:07:33,560 --> 01:07:35,520 Speaker 1: ricks Bank, I'm not sure how you pronounce it was 1170 01:07:35,560 --> 01:07:38,520 Speaker 1: formed in the reaction as a reaction to the collapse 1171 01:07:38,600 --> 01:07:42,000 Speaker 1: of Sweden's first bank. So do you remember this idea 1172 01:07:42,080 --> 01:07:45,240 Speaker 1: of banks issuing bank notes, issuing receipts based on the 1173 01:07:45,280 --> 01:07:49,080 Speaker 1: reserves of gold and silver that they hold. Well, this bank, this, 1174 01:07:49,080 --> 01:07:51,840 Speaker 1: this bank in Sweden, it went too far. It had 1175 01:07:51,880 --> 01:07:54,520 Speaker 1: these it had this golden silver in its faults, and 1176 01:07:54,600 --> 01:07:57,040 Speaker 1: it was issuing these receipts. But it went too far 1177 01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:00,160 Speaker 1: and issued more receipts than it had than it had 1178 01:08:00,200 --> 01:08:04,440 Speaker 1: reserves for. And this is what's known now as fractional 1179 01:08:04,520 --> 01:08:06,720 Speaker 1: reserve banking. Again, this is a term that we're going 1180 01:08:06,760 --> 01:08:09,200 Speaker 1: to come back to, especially when we talk about fear money. 1181 01:08:09,240 --> 01:08:14,800 Speaker 1: This idea that banks not holding or not holding enough 1182 01:08:14,880 --> 01:08:17,679 Speaker 1: in their vaults to cover all the receipts or notes 1183 01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:21,200 Speaker 1: that they've issued. Now, this isn't a problem so long 1184 01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:23,400 Speaker 1: as you don't have a bank run, so long as 1185 01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:25,840 Speaker 1: everyone doesn't try and come back to the bank and 1186 01:08:25,880 --> 01:08:29,080 Speaker 1: try and redeem those notes. Because this is the thing 1187 01:08:29,080 --> 01:08:33,920 Speaker 1: that bank notes, these receipts could be exchanged. And we'll 1188 01:08:33,960 --> 01:08:35,479 Speaker 1: get to we'll look at this in a moment with 1189 01:08:35,560 --> 01:08:37,719 Speaker 1: the with the with the gold standard. But these notes, 1190 01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:40,080 Speaker 1: you could take them to a bank and exchange them 1191 01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:42,479 Speaker 1: for precious metals, exchange them for the amount of gold 1192 01:08:42,520 --> 01:08:45,200 Speaker 1: or silver or i ever much they promised. And this 1193 01:08:45,320 --> 01:08:49,120 Speaker 1: was this was fine. But if you started doing fractional reserve, 1194 01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:51,759 Speaker 1: if you issued more than you had reserves for again, 1195 01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:54,559 Speaker 1: that would work as long as everyone or as long 1196 01:08:54,600 --> 01:08:57,960 Speaker 1: as too many people didn't come and try and redeem them. 1197 01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:01,040 Speaker 1: And this is what happened with Stockholm's bank. There was 1198 01:09:01,080 --> 01:09:03,800 Speaker 1: a bank run. Too many people decided for whatever reason, 1199 01:09:03,880 --> 01:09:05,880 Speaker 1: that they wanted to redeem their notes for the metal 1200 01:09:05,960 --> 01:09:09,520 Speaker 1: from the reserves, and the bank collapsed. And in response, 1201 01:09:09,960 --> 01:09:12,519 Speaker 1: the Swedish Central Bank was set up to sort of 1202 01:09:12,560 --> 01:09:18,720 Speaker 1: regulate these things better. Then in six the Bank of 1203 01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:21,880 Speaker 1: England was established. So this was only the second central bank. 1204 01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:24,840 Speaker 1: And the story behind that is that William the third 1205 01:09:24,880 --> 01:09:26,960 Speaker 1: he wanted to finance the building of a new navy 1206 01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:32,160 Speaker 1: because the French being being French, because the French had 1207 01:09:32,200 --> 01:09:36,519 Speaker 1: sunk the previous one. Um there'd been a sacard blu 1208 01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:40,400 Speaker 1: mon dieu. Yeah, those dastardly French had turned up sunk 1209 01:09:40,439 --> 01:09:42,960 Speaker 1: our sun called our brave British ships. William the Third 1210 01:09:43,080 --> 01:09:46,439 Speaker 1: was understandably pretty put out about this um. He wanted 1211 01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:48,519 Speaker 1: to build a new one. The only way that he 1212 01:09:48,560 --> 01:09:50,320 Speaker 1: could see to do this was to get a loan. 1213 01:09:50,479 --> 01:09:55,120 Speaker 1: So a lot of very rich people gathered together to 1214 01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:58,040 Speaker 1: lend him to create the Bank of England, and the 1215 01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:01,519 Speaker 1: Bank of England then lent William one point two million pounds. 1216 01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:04,559 Speaker 1: So yeah, the Bank of England was created in order 1217 01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:06,880 Speaker 1: to in order to bring this money together and then 1218 01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:10,000 Speaker 1: loan it to the King, and then the bank was 1219 01:10:10,040 --> 01:10:14,080 Speaker 1: obviously loaned to the King was faced with the money. 1220 01:10:14,240 --> 01:10:18,160 Speaker 1: Well yeah, but at this point the power of kings 1221 01:10:18,240 --> 01:10:22,439 Speaker 1: is sort of waning slightly. So although he although his 1222 01:10:22,479 --> 01:10:24,559 Speaker 1: face may well have been on the I'm not sure 1223 01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:26,200 Speaker 1: he would, they would have been on these bank notes. 1224 01:10:26,280 --> 01:10:27,960 Speaker 1: They would have been. It would have been on the coins, 1225 01:10:28,360 --> 01:10:29,920 Speaker 1: maybe not on the bank notes. But the Bank of 1226 01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:33,800 Speaker 1: England was permitted to issue bank notes against the debt 1227 01:10:33,920 --> 01:10:36,679 Speaker 1: that the King owed them, and this was this debt 1228 01:10:36,720 --> 01:10:40,559 Speaker 1: was legitimized because William agreed to accept those bank notes 1229 01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:45,200 Speaker 1: as as payment for taxes. So the so they kind 1230 01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:49,519 Speaker 1: of these these two these two forces came together. Yeah, 1231 01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:53,160 Speaker 1: the Bank of England lent the King the money, and 1232 01:10:53,200 --> 01:10:56,240 Speaker 1: the king in turn sort of guaranteed this money by 1233 01:10:56,280 --> 01:11:00,360 Speaker 1: saying we'll accept this debt exactly exactly, and thus putting 1234 01:11:00,360 --> 01:11:02,360 Speaker 1: the weight of the state and obviously the weight of 1235 01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:05,920 Speaker 1: this new navy that he built behind these bank notes. 1236 01:11:06,040 --> 01:11:08,639 Speaker 1: That is interesting. So look when you were talking about 1237 01:11:08,760 --> 01:11:13,880 Speaker 1: right this the aircraft carries missiles guns, it literally was that. 1238 01:11:13,960 --> 01:11:16,880 Speaker 1: And that's sort of your your that is back in 1239 01:11:16,960 --> 01:11:21,040 Speaker 1: your in your currency. Yeah, and some people it all 1240 01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:23,959 Speaker 1: comes back to the sword. It all, it's all circles 1241 01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:26,680 Speaker 1: back to the sword exactly. Some people talk about the 1242 01:11:27,120 --> 01:11:31,320 Speaker 1: idea of the state having the monopoly on violence. Um, 1243 01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,040 Speaker 1: and I guess meaning that you know, when it when 1244 01:11:34,040 --> 01:11:37,200 Speaker 1: push comes to shove, the state can point a sword 1245 01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:40,479 Speaker 1: at you and go this, you're going to accept this money, 1246 01:11:40,760 --> 01:11:43,000 Speaker 1: You're gonna like it because I've got lots more. We've 1247 01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:45,840 Speaker 1: got lots more of these swords. We've got some drones. Yeah, 1248 01:11:46,160 --> 01:11:49,000 Speaker 1: you've got droads and the swords and a navy. So 1249 01:11:49,080 --> 01:11:52,320 Speaker 1: this created an advanced new system of banking it relied 1250 01:11:52,360 --> 01:11:55,000 Speaker 1: on fractional reserves, so more notes were issued than there 1251 01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:58,200 Speaker 1: were reserves in the vault. But this still managed to 1252 01:11:58,240 --> 01:12:00,400 Speaker 1: fuel the growth of Britain as a naval power and 1253 01:12:00,439 --> 01:12:03,880 Speaker 1: it also helped finance the Industrial Revolution. So again money 1254 01:12:03,960 --> 01:12:07,560 Speaker 1: has taken a technological leap forward and people have unlocked 1255 01:12:07,600 --> 01:12:13,320 Speaker 1: this idea of sparked innovation and allowed allowed of progress exactly. Yeah, 1256 01:12:13,479 --> 01:12:16,120 Speaker 1: more money. And what they've kind of I guess the 1257 01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:18,040 Speaker 1: way to think about it is that they managed they 1258 01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:21,639 Speaker 1: found an ingenious way to create more money that people 1259 01:12:21,680 --> 01:12:24,840 Speaker 1: will accept. And again this is the Bank of England 1260 01:12:24,880 --> 01:12:27,400 Speaker 1: and the and the state sort of interacting and one 1261 01:12:27,479 --> 01:12:30,559 Speaker 1: guaranteeing the other and therefore making this new form of 1262 01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:34,160 Speaker 1: sound money, even though it wasn't fully backed by by gold, 1263 01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:41,120 Speaker 1: was backed by a state accepting it. And yeah, it's 1264 01:12:41,240 --> 01:12:46,479 Speaker 1: intertwining it with the tax system. Is is ingenious? Yeah, Yeah, 1265 01:12:46,479 --> 01:12:48,439 Speaker 1: and it gave And because it had the backing of 1266 01:12:48,439 --> 01:12:51,120 Speaker 1: the state, people had confidence in it. People trusted it 1267 01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:54,320 Speaker 1: and were therefore happy to use it, happy to accept it, 1268 01:12:54,360 --> 01:12:57,440 Speaker 1: happy to trade with it, happy to take it overseas. 1269 01:12:57,520 --> 01:12:59,719 Speaker 1: All this sort of stuff. It was it had value 1270 01:13:00,240 --> 01:13:03,719 Speaker 1: um and this kind of moves us on quite nicely 1271 01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:06,439 Speaker 1: to this idea of the gold standard, which is the 1272 01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:10,519 Speaker 1: next sort of big technological leap forward. And this was 1273 01:13:10,600 --> 01:13:14,680 Speaker 1: again us in Britain, we pioneered this um and it 1274 01:13:14,760 --> 01:13:17,320 Speaker 1: was actually that moved to the gold stand was directed 1275 01:13:17,360 --> 01:13:20,960 Speaker 1: by Isaac Newton, who some people have described as one 1276 01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:22,960 Speaker 1: of the probably one of the cleverest people who ever lived, 1277 01:13:23,640 --> 01:13:26,040 Speaker 1: and he was Warden of the Royal Mint at the 1278 01:13:26,080 --> 01:13:28,439 Speaker 1: time and he was instrumental in getting Brittain onto a 1279 01:13:28,479 --> 01:13:32,240 Speaker 1: gold standard. So at this point we should talk about 1280 01:13:32,320 --> 01:13:36,000 Speaker 1: what a gold standard actually means. Basically, a gold standard 1281 01:13:36,080 --> 01:13:39,320 Speaker 1: means that a nation's currency is valued according to a 1282 01:13:39,439 --> 01:13:42,800 Speaker 1: fixed amount of gold. So when Britain adopted it in 1283 01:13:42,920 --> 01:13:46,200 Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen, the price was set to just over four 1284 01:13:46,240 --> 01:13:50,560 Speaker 1: pounds per finance, so roughly one quarter ounce of gold 1285 01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:54,680 Speaker 1: to one good old British pound. So in practice this 1286 01:13:54,760 --> 01:13:56,880 Speaker 1: means that a nation on the gold standard should have 1287 01:13:57,000 --> 01:14:00,920 Speaker 1: all of its currency in circulation backed by actual gold 1288 01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:03,800 Speaker 1: in its faults. Is that the case today though, no, 1289 01:14:04,560 --> 01:14:07,120 Speaker 1: not at all, And this is something this is something 1290 01:14:07,160 --> 01:14:09,479 Speaker 1: that will cover. And this is when people say, oh, 1291 01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:13,280 Speaker 1: bitcoins not backed by anything, it's well neither is fear money, 1292 01:14:13,479 --> 01:14:16,400 Speaker 1: and I think the latest figure I saw was the 1293 01:14:16,439 --> 01:14:20,120 Speaker 1: amount of pounds backed by gold is I think around 1294 01:14:20,160 --> 01:14:25,360 Speaker 1: fo not much not much so in theory, as we've 1295 01:14:25,360 --> 01:14:28,040 Speaker 1: touched on before. In theory, anyone wielding one of these 1296 01:14:28,040 --> 01:14:31,080 Speaker 1: bank notes could toddle along to the Central Bank, to 1297 01:14:31,160 --> 01:14:35,160 Speaker 1: the Bank of England and redeem it for gold, for 1298 01:14:35,240 --> 01:14:38,040 Speaker 1: an actual amount of physical gold. And this was kind 1299 01:14:38,080 --> 01:14:40,519 Speaker 1: of the gold standard in action. Now I just want 1300 01:14:40,560 --> 01:14:44,720 Speaker 1: to be really pedantic. There are technically several types of 1301 01:14:44,760 --> 01:14:47,280 Speaker 1: gold standard that so the gold standards, the gold standard 1302 01:14:47,280 --> 01:14:50,599 Speaker 1: for gold, what is the gold the absolute gold standard 1303 01:14:50,600 --> 01:14:53,559 Speaker 1: of gold standards. So what we've been talking about is 1304 01:14:53,560 --> 01:14:56,640 Speaker 1: the gold bullion standard, this idea that you can that 1305 01:14:56,720 --> 01:14:59,040 Speaker 1: you can go and actually and get physical gold for 1306 01:14:59,320 --> 01:15:02,120 Speaker 1: in return your banknotes. There are two others. There's the 1307 01:15:02,160 --> 01:15:08,280 Speaker 1: gold species standard, meaning gold coins conform to standardized shapes, sizes, weights, 1308 01:15:08,400 --> 01:15:11,240 Speaker 1: and levels of purity. And we've touched on this before, 1309 01:15:11,240 --> 01:15:14,240 Speaker 1: haven't we, This idea of standardization. Well, that's the gold 1310 01:15:14,280 --> 01:15:17,080 Speaker 1: species standard. So then we have the third type of 1311 01:15:17,120 --> 01:15:19,559 Speaker 1: gold standards. Who knew there were so many? And this 1312 01:15:19,640 --> 01:15:24,479 Speaker 1: is the non convertible gold bullion standard. The NCGB s 1313 01:15:25,160 --> 01:15:27,640 Speaker 1: and this simply means, I love. This simply means that 1314 01:15:27,680 --> 01:15:29,960 Speaker 1: the currency is worth a certain amount of gold, but 1315 01:15:30,040 --> 01:15:33,280 Speaker 1: you can't actually go and convert it into actual gold. 1316 01:15:33,400 --> 01:15:37,759 Speaker 1: So you turn up at the Yeah, yeah it's worth Yeah, absolutely, 1317 01:15:37,800 --> 01:15:39,880 Speaker 1: it's worth It's worth a pound of gold, all right, 1318 01:15:39,920 --> 01:15:45,519 Speaker 1: Can I have it be ridiculous again? Britain thrived on 1319 01:15:45,560 --> 01:15:48,840 Speaker 1: the gold standard. It remained in place until fourteen. It 1320 01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:51,959 Speaker 1: was briefly suspended, well not briefly suspended. It was suspended 1321 01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:58,040 Speaker 1: during the Napoleonic Wars, which went on from one very good, 1322 01:15:58,800 --> 01:16:03,000 Speaker 1: very good. Um, I read it off, you read it 1323 01:16:03,040 --> 01:16:06,400 Speaker 1: off my notes. It was a bound So yeah it was. 1324 01:16:06,520 --> 01:16:10,280 Speaker 1: It was suspended during the Napoleonic Wars of one, and 1325 01:16:10,320 --> 01:16:13,400 Speaker 1: then it was it was reinterrupted and then abandoned again 1326 01:16:13,840 --> 01:16:16,439 Speaker 1: to pay for World War One. Some sort of speculate 1327 01:16:16,479 --> 01:16:18,519 Speaker 1: that if the combatants in World War One had stuck 1328 01:16:18,520 --> 01:16:20,800 Speaker 1: to the gold standard, then everyone would run out of 1329 01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:23,599 Speaker 1: money and the war wouldn't have been able to go on. Um. 1330 01:16:23,640 --> 01:16:26,680 Speaker 1: And sadly, this idea of kind of sound money and 1331 01:16:27,080 --> 01:16:29,599 Speaker 1: of money backed by gold, it kind of goes out 1332 01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:31,840 Speaker 1: of the window a lot whenever war comes along. War 1333 01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:35,360 Speaker 1: is a big disruptor of of of of money, of 1334 01:16:35,439 --> 01:16:40,320 Speaker 1: sound money. Um. So it was abandoned because we needed 1335 01:16:40,360 --> 01:16:46,839 Speaker 1: more tank We needed more guns, bullets, bombs, planes, tanks, 1336 01:16:46,880 --> 01:16:49,160 Speaker 1: whatever we needed to we needed to fight the war. 1337 01:16:49,240 --> 01:16:52,960 Speaker 1: So the gold standard was abandoned. Silver bullets for those 1338 01:16:53,000 --> 01:16:56,120 Speaker 1: werewolves exactly, all those all those German werewolves that they 1339 01:16:56,120 --> 01:16:58,400 Speaker 1: were applying on the Western Front. We needed all. Yeah, 1340 01:16:58,400 --> 01:17:03,280 Speaker 1: I needed that and so yeah, other nations had followed 1341 01:17:03,280 --> 01:17:06,280 Speaker 1: Britain onto the gold standard after the Napoleonic Wars. They've gone, hey, 1342 01:17:06,320 --> 01:17:08,400 Speaker 1: this is a good idea. Britain's doing pretty well. It's 1343 01:17:08,439 --> 01:17:12,320 Speaker 1: the pre eminent global power, it's got an empire on 1344 01:17:12,680 --> 01:17:16,640 Speaker 1: which the sun never sets. Um. And the adoption of 1345 01:17:16,680 --> 01:17:19,960 Speaker 1: a gold standard by European powers, it's sort of brought 1346 01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:22,479 Speaker 1: a golden a golden age to Europe. And the only 1347 01:17:22,520 --> 01:17:25,040 Speaker 1: thing that brought that to an end was obviously World 1348 01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:27,200 Speaker 1: War One. At the end of World War One, the 1349 01:17:27,200 --> 01:17:30,880 Speaker 1: Allied Powers turned around and went, right, Germany, you're going 1350 01:17:30,920 --> 01:17:33,960 Speaker 1: to pay for this quite literally, um, and yeah, the 1351 01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:37,240 Speaker 1: reparations payments they were agreed at the Treaty of Versailles 1352 01:17:37,520 --> 01:17:40,920 Speaker 1: in and they were ruinous. They basically said, right, you've 1353 01:17:40,920 --> 01:17:43,760 Speaker 1: got to pay for this entire war. And this led 1354 01:17:43,800 --> 01:17:46,800 Speaker 1: Germany down the down the road to sort of hyperinflation 1355 01:17:46,840 --> 01:17:49,720 Speaker 1: because it just it didn't have they didn't have any money. 1356 01:17:50,080 --> 01:17:53,519 Speaker 1: It tried to print more money um and devalued its 1357 01:17:53,520 --> 01:17:58,120 Speaker 1: currency and everything basically went to pot. Yeah, everything went 1358 01:17:58,120 --> 01:18:01,439 Speaker 1: down the toilet um. So the years after World War 1359 01:18:01,439 --> 01:18:04,599 Speaker 1: One saw economic catastrophes across the world. Germany, as I say, 1360 01:18:04,640 --> 01:18:07,679 Speaker 1: was crippled by hyper inflation. Then we had the Great 1361 01:18:07,680 --> 01:18:13,840 Speaker 1: Depression in thirty nine, which devastated world economies. That was 1362 01:18:13,920 --> 01:18:17,599 Speaker 1: mass unemployment, stagnating wages. Everything was going down. That done 1363 01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:20,640 Speaker 1: the toilet. But this came to an end with the 1364 01:18:20,680 --> 01:18:23,760 Speaker 1: outbreak of World War two. Now we can't sort of 1365 01:18:23,920 --> 01:18:27,280 Speaker 1: solely blame Hitler and the Nazis and their rise to 1366 01:18:27,360 --> 01:18:31,280 Speaker 1: power on the break from the gold standard. Roosevelts made 1367 01:18:31,280 --> 01:18:33,240 Speaker 1: it illegal for Americans to own gold. They had to 1368 01:18:33,280 --> 01:18:34,840 Speaker 1: sell it back to the state at the rate of 1369 01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:37,639 Speaker 1: just over twenty dollars an ounce, and then the dollar 1370 01:18:37,840 --> 01:18:40,920 Speaker 1: was revalued to thirty five dollars an ounce. So it's 1371 01:18:40,960 --> 01:18:43,400 Speaker 1: again this kind of a bit like Nero did, this 1372 01:18:43,479 --> 01:18:45,680 Speaker 1: kind of idea that the currency was devalue, all the 1373 01:18:45,720 --> 01:18:49,679 Speaker 1: gold was taken in and then more money was made um. 1374 01:18:49,720 --> 01:18:52,000 Speaker 1: But this was done because it was felt that U 1375 01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:56,240 Speaker 1: S citizens hoarding gold was stifling growth. Um. And again 1376 01:18:56,720 --> 01:18:59,759 Speaker 1: we this idea of Gresham's law, people holding on to 1377 01:19:00,040 --> 01:19:02,120 Speaker 1: good money, but it means there's less money in the 1378 01:19:02,120 --> 01:19:05,479 Speaker 1: economy if people are hoarding, if people are saving. Now, 1379 01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:08,479 Speaker 1: I think this raises quite a valid criticism of the 1380 01:19:08,479 --> 01:19:11,559 Speaker 1: gold standard, because I think so far we've given the 1381 01:19:11,560 --> 01:19:14,920 Speaker 1: impression that if only everyone had stayed on the gold standard, 1382 01:19:14,960 --> 01:19:18,599 Speaker 1: everything would have been fine. Economies would have flourished, etcetera, etcetera. 1383 01:19:19,439 --> 01:19:22,280 Speaker 1: But there is a downside to it by which it 1384 01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:25,920 Speaker 1: can lead to many people, especially very wealthy people, hoarding money, 1385 01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:29,080 Speaker 1: especially in times of crisis. And again this slows down 1386 01:19:29,080 --> 01:19:31,519 Speaker 1: the economy. It makes a bad situation worse because there's 1387 01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:35,640 Speaker 1: less money, there's less less you can do with it. Trade, innovation, 1388 01:19:35,640 --> 01:19:40,640 Speaker 1: all these things are stifled because people are just hoddling. Um. 1389 01:19:40,720 --> 01:19:43,800 Speaker 1: So the money raised by devaluing the dollar helped pay 1390 01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:46,600 Speaker 1: for the New Deal, which helped lift America out of 1391 01:19:46,640 --> 01:19:50,479 Speaker 1: the depression. So this idea of money was money was 1392 01:19:50,520 --> 01:19:53,639 Speaker 1: kind of freed up and a lot of Americans, obviously 1393 01:19:53,720 --> 01:19:56,200 Speaker 1: those are holding a lot of gold, got pretty upset 1394 01:19:56,200 --> 01:19:58,920 Speaker 1: about it. But it seems in retrospect to have worked 1395 01:19:59,479 --> 01:20:05,559 Speaker 1: because corp. Yeah. Now, obviously, after World War Two, the 1396 01:20:05,680 --> 01:20:07,840 Speaker 1: USA was the dominant global power, is the only one 1397 01:20:07,880 --> 01:20:11,519 Speaker 1: that hadn't sort of been bombed or invaded or fought over. 1398 01:20:11,880 --> 01:20:15,360 Speaker 1: The Breton Woods Conference in n saw the dollar pegged 1399 01:20:15,439 --> 01:20:18,960 Speaker 1: to gold, and all other world currency currencies were in 1400 01:20:19,040 --> 01:20:22,599 Speaker 1: turn pegged to the dollar, and this made the dollar 1401 01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:26,320 Speaker 1: the kind of world's reserve currency because obviously the US 1402 01:20:26,439 --> 01:20:29,760 Speaker 1: was the world's strongest economy. Um, it had plenty, it 1403 01:20:29,840 --> 01:20:36,400 Speaker 1: was holding plenty of gold in its vaults. Everything was fine, supposedly. Unfortunately, 1404 01:20:36,479 --> 01:20:41,479 Speaker 1: the US then got involved in a place called Vietnam, which, 1405 01:20:41,520 --> 01:20:44,200 Speaker 1: as we all know, did not go well, and basically 1406 01:20:44,240 --> 01:20:47,880 Speaker 1: as it didn't as it did with Iraq and Afghanistan 1407 01:20:48,160 --> 01:20:51,760 Speaker 1: in more recent times, basically through money at this war, 1408 01:20:51,800 --> 01:20:55,479 Speaker 1: and again we have war coming along to disrupt. Yeah. 1409 01:20:56,240 --> 01:21:00,400 Speaker 1: So America was bleeding money in Vietnam, amongst other things, um, 1410 01:21:00,439 --> 01:21:04,320 Speaker 1: and it was also losing out to other to other nations. 1411 01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:06,760 Speaker 1: It was a trade deficit opened up, and it was 1412 01:21:06,800 --> 01:21:11,599 Speaker 1: finding it increasingly difficult to compete nation. Yeah, the lags 1413 01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:15,599 Speaker 1: of China, China, China, UM, and yes, so other there 1414 01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:19,479 Speaker 1: was a trade deficit. Other countries were undercutting American workers, 1415 01:21:19,960 --> 01:21:23,360 Speaker 1: especially in things like manufacturing. Um. And there were a 1416 01:21:23,360 --> 01:21:26,880 Speaker 1: few instances other countries started to kind of lose their 1417 01:21:26,920 --> 01:21:30,000 Speaker 1: confidence in the US in this in this dollar peg 1418 01:21:30,880 --> 01:21:32,760 Speaker 1: in the Breton Wood Yeah, Vietnam, I think it had 1419 01:21:32,760 --> 01:21:35,439 Speaker 1: their own problems, but yeah, there would have. There would 1420 01:21:35,439 --> 01:21:37,160 Speaker 1: have obviously been a lot of people who were not 1421 01:21:37,240 --> 01:21:40,120 Speaker 1: too happy about the Breton Woods agreement and and the 1422 01:21:40,160 --> 01:21:43,720 Speaker 1: dollar being the world's reserve currency and being pegged to gold, etcetera, etcetera. UM, 1423 01:21:43,720 --> 01:21:46,599 Speaker 1: and there's a great instance. Um, A lot of countries 1424 01:21:46,600 --> 01:21:50,280 Speaker 1: started to lose their confidence in in in this system. France, 1425 01:21:51,040 --> 01:21:54,439 Speaker 1: those French again decided to send a battleship over to 1426 01:21:54,760 --> 01:21:59,120 Speaker 1: America to pick up its gold. So in nineteen seventy one, Nixon, 1427 01:21:59,560 --> 01:22:03,759 Speaker 1: that guy, he abandoned the gold I am not a crook. 1428 01:22:03,880 --> 01:22:07,360 Speaker 1: I am not a crook exactly. Um. So he abandoned 1429 01:22:07,360 --> 01:22:10,280 Speaker 1: the gold peg. He took the dollar he took, and 1430 01:22:10,320 --> 01:22:13,479 Speaker 1: then other currencies began to abandon their pegs to the dollar. 1431 01:22:13,840 --> 01:22:17,120 Speaker 1: And this was the kind of the beginning of the 1432 01:22:17,160 --> 01:22:20,599 Speaker 1: real era of fiat money. Now we've talked that, we've 1433 01:22:20,680 --> 01:22:23,240 Speaker 1: used this term feat a few times. Fear always comes 1434 01:22:23,280 --> 01:22:26,519 Speaker 1: up when we're talking crypto. Um, So let's just quickly 1435 01:22:26,920 --> 01:22:31,360 Speaker 1: go over what fear money is. So, without without currencies 1436 01:22:31,360 --> 01:22:34,160 Speaker 1: paid to any other asset, countries across the world now 1437 01:22:34,160 --> 01:22:37,160 Speaker 1: had complete control over their money supplies, how much money 1438 01:22:37,160 --> 01:22:40,439 Speaker 1: they produced, what it was worth, etcetera. Um. And this 1439 01:22:40,560 --> 01:22:43,960 Speaker 1: is fiat money, money that is valuable because a government 1440 01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:47,639 Speaker 1: says so. Fat is Latin for let it be done 1441 01:22:48,439 --> 01:22:50,559 Speaker 1: so in English this has come to mean a decree 1442 01:22:50,760 --> 01:22:53,439 Speaker 1: or order, especially by those who have the authority to 1443 01:22:53,560 --> 01:22:56,719 Speaker 1: enforce it. So fiat money is money by decree. Fiat 1444 01:22:56,760 --> 01:22:59,240 Speaker 1: money doesn't have to be backed by gold or any 1445 01:22:59,280 --> 01:23:03,400 Speaker 1: other asset. Guns just guns. Yeah, the violence, the monopoly 1446 01:23:03,400 --> 01:23:05,479 Speaker 1: on violence. So governments are free to produce as much 1447 01:23:05,520 --> 01:23:09,599 Speaker 1: of it as they want. And after there were periods 1448 01:23:09,600 --> 01:23:12,000 Speaker 1: when this fat money allowed for growth and prosperity. Again, 1449 01:23:12,080 --> 01:23:14,559 Speaker 1: so the lack of any gold standard meant that the 1450 01:23:14,640 --> 01:23:19,360 Speaker 1: supply of money basically grew unchecked. Banks were effectively able 1451 01:23:19,400 --> 01:23:22,960 Speaker 1: to create new money by issuing debt. And again this 1452 01:23:23,040 --> 01:23:25,439 Speaker 1: is something that will look at in future episodes the 1453 01:23:25,479 --> 01:23:29,599 Speaker 1: ability of banks to create money. It is a lot 1454 01:23:29,600 --> 01:23:32,000 Speaker 1: more complicated than that, but this is the This is 1455 01:23:32,040 --> 01:23:35,519 Speaker 1: the era of fiat money, money being created almost out 1456 01:23:35,520 --> 01:23:38,599 Speaker 1: of thin air. And you can see where this is leading, 1457 01:23:38,720 --> 01:23:40,599 Speaker 1: I think, um and there are a few steps along 1458 01:23:40,640 --> 01:23:43,000 Speaker 1: the way. An important moment is the repeal of the 1459 01:23:43,000 --> 01:23:46,960 Speaker 1: Glass Stiegel Act in under Bill Clinton. That meant that 1460 01:23:47,040 --> 01:23:49,880 Speaker 1: commercial banks now I think of commercial banks as kind 1461 01:23:49,920 --> 01:23:54,200 Speaker 1: of piggy banks, and investment banks think of them as casinos. 1462 01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:59,320 Speaker 1: Now these were these were these couldn't operate together before 1463 01:23:59,400 --> 01:24:01,599 Speaker 1: the repeal of last st Eagel. But when the Glass 1464 01:24:01,600 --> 01:24:06,120 Speaker 1: Steagel Act was enacted, investment banks and commercial banks could 1465 01:24:06,160 --> 01:24:09,679 Speaker 1: be merged. And this meant that the kind of casino 1466 01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:12,759 Speaker 1: banks were able to take the money from savings banks, 1467 01:24:12,920 --> 01:24:15,919 Speaker 1: you know, the money that carefully and gamble with exactly. 1468 01:24:16,520 --> 01:24:19,479 Speaker 1: And this eventually led to the crash of two thousand 1469 01:24:19,520 --> 01:24:22,280 Speaker 1: and eight, where banks had created they basically created so 1470 01:24:22,320 --> 01:24:26,040 Speaker 1: many complicated derivative products and debt that the whole system 1471 01:24:26,120 --> 01:24:28,519 Speaker 1: basically imploded. But the crash of two thousand and eight 1472 01:24:28,800 --> 01:24:32,400 Speaker 1: obviously was the kind of the low point for fiat 1473 01:24:32,439 --> 01:24:35,080 Speaker 1: money and this is what brought us to the invention 1474 01:24:35,120 --> 01:24:39,479 Speaker 1: of bitcoin and the birth of cryptocurrencies. And this again 1475 01:24:39,560 --> 01:24:41,719 Speaker 1: is something we're going to cover in the next episode. 1476 01:24:41,720 --> 01:24:44,680 Speaker 1: We're going to look at why bitcoin was invented, what 1477 01:24:44,920 --> 01:24:48,439 Speaker 1: it was invented in reaction to m and the problems 1478 01:24:48,520 --> 01:24:51,920 Speaker 1: it looked to solve. So should we wrap things up? 1479 01:24:52,560 --> 01:24:55,599 Speaker 1: How have you found today? Has it been a wild ride? 1480 01:24:56,600 --> 01:25:00,880 Speaker 1: Wild is not the word I would use. Fascinating. I 1481 01:25:00,920 --> 01:25:08,040 Speaker 1: didn't realize that um sort of currencies and armies were 1482 01:25:08,080 --> 01:25:14,840 Speaker 1: so closely linked. The ability of money to sort of 1483 01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:20,080 Speaker 1: be a catalyst for innovation is a lot clearer now. 1484 01:25:21,560 --> 01:25:27,360 Speaker 1: And how countries have sort of harnessed UM you know 1485 01:25:27,600 --> 01:25:31,479 Speaker 1: that that power and allowed it's it's citizens to sort 1486 01:25:31,520 --> 01:25:37,080 Speaker 1: of flourish has been real eye opener um war as 1487 01:25:37,120 --> 01:25:42,040 Speaker 1: a distributor, but obviously a bit more complicated with with 1488 01:25:42,040 --> 01:25:44,680 Speaker 1: with things like that. But yeah, it's been fascinating. Really, 1489 01:25:45,040 --> 01:25:47,800 Speaker 1: it has been quite interesting. Great, Yeah, and I think 1490 01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:51,160 Speaker 1: that's so. But again, this idea of money as a 1491 01:25:51,160 --> 01:25:55,280 Speaker 1: technology evolving over time and a facility. It's a technology 1492 01:25:55,320 --> 01:25:59,240 Speaker 1: that allows other tech to be driven exactly. Yeah, it's 1493 01:25:59,320 --> 01:26:02,360 Speaker 1: kind of it's grease the wheels hasn't it. It's easy 1494 01:26:02,400 --> 01:26:05,200 Speaker 1: to it's easy to think that if if we were 1495 01:26:05,200 --> 01:26:09,000 Speaker 1: still trading with shells or cows, or or just even 1496 01:26:09,080 --> 01:26:11,960 Speaker 1: lumps of metal, we would still be in a pretty 1497 01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:17,040 Speaker 1: primitive state. That the great leaps forward, the innovations, the expeditions, 1498 01:26:17,240 --> 01:26:20,160 Speaker 1: the discoveries, all this, all this sort of stuff, it 1499 01:26:20,160 --> 01:26:24,280 Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without money being created behind it. 1500 01:26:24,520 --> 01:26:27,439 Speaker 1: And yeah, this technology has done wonderful things, and as 1501 01:26:27,479 --> 01:26:30,080 Speaker 1: it's evolved, it's let us do more. And the ability 1502 01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:33,080 Speaker 1: to create new money has made us richer. But obviously, 1503 01:26:33,120 --> 01:26:36,719 Speaker 1: as we've seen, it's come with with dangers um and 1504 01:26:37,040 --> 01:26:40,719 Speaker 1: the unchecked creation of new money today is obviously driving 1505 01:26:40,800 --> 01:26:44,240 Speaker 1: fears of inflation. But I guess that, I guess what 1506 01:26:44,280 --> 01:26:48,360 Speaker 1: we can take away is that cryptocurrency is basically the 1507 01:26:48,479 --> 01:26:52,400 Speaker 1: latest technological innovation of money. It's the latest stage. It's 1508 01:26:52,439 --> 01:26:58,680 Speaker 1: the iPhone fourteen? What iPhone away on? Now? It's the 1509 01:26:58,720 --> 01:27:01,160 Speaker 1: iPhone thirty? Well, maybe it is the iPhone four team 1510 01:27:01,200 --> 01:27:04,240 Speaker 1: because it is the future. Perhaps it's even what Perhaps 1511 01:27:04,320 --> 01:27:07,120 Speaker 1: it's the iPhone itself, because I mean, the iPhone was 1512 01:27:07,200 --> 01:27:09,479 Speaker 1: such a big moment, wasn't it. I Mean, there are 1513 01:27:09,760 --> 01:27:13,960 Speaker 1: iPhones or iPhones. Now it's just but actually, cryptocurrency is 1514 01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:19,920 Speaker 1: this latest technological leap. It's the iPhone of money. It's 1515 01:27:19,960 --> 01:27:22,840 Speaker 1: evolved to combat some of the problems with the modern 1516 01:27:22,840 --> 01:27:27,000 Speaker 1: monetary system. Um. And yeah, it's the latest, it's the 1517 01:27:27,080 --> 01:27:29,200 Speaker 1: latest step on the path, and it's going to be 1518 01:27:29,439 --> 01:27:32,160 Speaker 1: it's going to be so interesting over in these few episodes. Yeah, 1519 01:27:32,200 --> 01:27:35,920 Speaker 1: it's interesting to see how this latest technology or latest 1520 01:27:35,960 --> 01:27:42,439 Speaker 1: form of financial technology greases the wheels of future innovation exactly, exactly, 1521 01:27:42,880 --> 01:27:45,160 Speaker 1: and a lot of people, I think with any new technology, 1522 01:27:45,200 --> 01:27:48,160 Speaker 1: people are always going to be suspicious of it. Um. 1523 01:27:48,320 --> 01:27:50,080 Speaker 1: They're always going to have their doubts and they're going 1524 01:27:50,120 --> 01:27:52,320 Speaker 1: to go, well, how does this work? Is what is 1525 01:27:52,360 --> 01:27:56,040 Speaker 1: this glass bead? Yeah? What is this? What is this 1526 01:27:56,200 --> 01:28:00,240 Speaker 1: deer skin? This gold peg? Yeah? Paper money, it will 1527 01:28:00,280 --> 01:28:04,439 Speaker 1: never catch on. Yeah, chickens, No, give me my turnip? 1528 01:28:04,680 --> 01:28:08,519 Speaker 1: Are you a turnip? Are you a chicken? What is 1529 01:28:08,560 --> 01:28:12,920 Speaker 1: this chicken money? Yeah? Yeah, cryptocurrency, it's um. People are 1530 01:28:12,960 --> 01:28:15,240 Speaker 1: naturally still suspicious of it, but it's going to open 1531 01:28:15,320 --> 01:28:18,720 Speaker 1: up so many new opportunities. I think this has been 1532 01:28:18,720 --> 01:28:23,919 Speaker 1: really let's flush this toilet, get out of Ellen's bathroom. 1533 01:28:23,960 --> 01:28:27,240 Speaker 1: Bathroom yeah, I think. Yeah, we finished powdering our noses 1534 01:28:27,240 --> 01:28:28,920 Speaker 1: and leave. We don't want to be caught in here. 1535 01:28:29,160 --> 01:28:32,400 Speaker 1: I think we'd have too many questions to answer. Thanks folks, 1536 01:28:32,960 --> 01:28:43,240 Speaker 1: but for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the 1537 01:28:43,280 --> 01:28:46,960 Speaker 1: I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 1538 01:28:46,960 --> 01:28:50,160 Speaker 1: your podcasts. The coin Gero podcast is a production of 1539 01:28:50,320 --> 01:29:00,479 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio eight two