Six Historically True Facts about Money
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
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Money isn’t actually valuable. It’s just pieces of metal, pieces of paper, or more recently, computer code. So how did money come to be such a driving force of modern life?
Written and Hosted By: Danielle Bainbridge
Graphics By: Noelle Smith
Edited By: Linda Huang and Mike Petrow
Fact Check: Sarah Edwards
Produced By: Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)
Help Us with the PBS Digital Survey:
to.pbs.org/2018YTSurvey
Watch the Two Cents Episode on bitcoin here:
/ 1181286988680506
Works Cited
www.thebalance.com/what-is-th...
gold-standard.procon.org/sour...
www.businessinsider.com/histor...
www.gold.org/about-gold/histo...
www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate...
On the History of Money:
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism Ha Joon Chang
Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Niall Ferguson
www.history.com/news/8-things...
www.bbc.com/news/business-401...
www.businessinsider.com/securi...
www.britannica.com/topic/cred...
www.slate.com/human-interest/2...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
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"...bread, lettuce, and cheddar"... That took me a second. Love it.
Same here.
A LOT more subs. This is one of the best new channels on RUclips. You’re the bomb, lady.
Can I just tell u how happy I am to see someone who looks like me AND enjoys learning just for the sake of knowledge. Your channel is AMAZING!
Its just nice to have a great host! (And I hate to be superficial with such great content, but I love the outfits!)
Why is it so important for black women to have someone who looks like them everywhere they go. Their obsession with color is unhealthy.
@@reconstructionwouldhavesav9472 what’s with white people’s historic obsession with erasing the history of the people they colonized? They had an unhealthy obsession with subjugation.
I’m over here minding my business lol, let me have nice things thanks.
Since we are in the middle of summer, how about the origin of sunblock?
Forgot to mention one important quality about gold and that is that it doesn't rust. This is part of what made it ideal for early currency as that meant that you could store money for a long time and that coins could stay in circulation for a long time as well. It's shininess and color probably also played a role as it reminded people of the sun and there's evidence that a lot of cultures considered gold sacred because of these things. Of course not all cultures that considered gold sacred ended up using it as currency, notably the Inca who mainly saw it as a thing for decoration and worship. The malleability was also important in some barter systems as you could fairly easily break a piece of gold off a bar and use that to pay, which is probably why it became the obvious choice for currency.
Metals in general actually played a fairly important role in the rise of the state and hierarchical societies, before metals there were very few ways you could really pass on wealth. You could pass on a farm but one bad harvest could still throw your family back to poverty quickly, most goods like food, stone tools and pottery were all things that spoiled, broke down quickly over time or could break. That changed with the introduction of metals because a bronze sword can last a life time and bronze tools, weapons and armor are obviously useful and incredibly durable. If you have a bronze breast plate you can probably win a fight against someone who just has stone tools and a bronze sword is both deadly and keeps it's edge for a long time. You can look at the Bible to just see how big a deal metal were as God is described as incapable of defeating the Philistines because they had iron chariots. Amassing metal goods became a way of amassing wealth through generations and building up power, now if you had a bad harvest you could trade your bronze rings for wheat because everyone had a use for bronze and it lasted for a long time. This whole system would then collapse during the Bronze Age collapse.
I think you're a great host! Sorry there are so many whiners on the internet.
I love her enthusiasm!
I second that
She talks too fast and not clearly. From the appearance she is bloated and ugly and hard to look at.
Quite clearly you don't understand English. She can easily ignore this. Your life must be full of misery. People hate you. They love her enthusiasm.
@@ainsworth501 She is annoying. You are biased because she has the right gender/race for a pc like you.
I wonder why the US doesn't switch to Polymer notes like UK, Canada, Mexico. I presume the smooth polymer surface would be less germy? Oh and thanks for the shout out!! =) Keep up the great work!
@ ARTiculations Don't forget Australia the first country to use them
Polymer bank notes are made in Australia. Also New Zealand has polymer bank notes used too.
Nostalgia on part of the US, I reckon. That, and with QAnon doing the rounds over there I reckon half the public would assume each polymer note contained a 5g microchip supplied by Bill Gates. :P
Even more resistance to change than here in the UK. All our notes are now polymer [first was issued in 2016] and there are still many people who "hate" them.
I get so excited every time I see a new Origin or Everything episode has been released!
I just also wanted to note that I think it's great you recognized an error instead of pretending it didn't happen. Thank you for doing that.
This channel should have more subs
I was introduced to your channel by my elementary aged child and we both love it. I think that says alot. :-) Thank You.
You should have had PBS pay you a trip to the museum of money in Lisbon, Portugal, for research and media material. Entrance is free but it would have been a good excuse for a nice visit to Lisbon…😉
I agree, it's time for a field trip!
David Shi It would be nice to see Danielle out of the studio some day. 🙂
I just love this lady, she speaks so clear and quick.
Realllllllly quick.
She’s pretty awesome!
Superb hosting skills!!!
Found your channel through Step Back History. Great content, actually learned more than i thought. Instantly subbed :)
Q&A: Malls being "hubs" - the mall I grew up frequenting had, as its top floor, offices. Mostly doctor's offices, but there were "general office" uses, too. There is even a connected conventional "high rise office building" under the same name/ownership. (Although it has separate entrances.) And there are apartment buildings across the street, that apparently used to be owned by the same ownership.
Fantastic channel with an equally formidable host! Love your presentation style & rich, informative content -- I feel smarter with every episode :) Subscribed!
Really love this host. She is captivating. Her presence, command of the subject matter, clear and crisp delivery of hella info, is top notch. Phenomenal!!!
I am super delighted by the way you casually cite your sources!!! Love, a human footnote
Person: what is money?
Me: *cries in economics*
You are an excellent historian 👍
Loved the video, and I hadn't considered how inconvenient the barter system would be large scale, although that makes a lot of sense. The largely subjective value of the stuff bartered would also make any attempt at consistent trade largely impossible.
Michael Wade barter in general is inefficient. Our ancestors used informal credit systems. Where if you needed something, you pay with your labour and helped the guy out. Then in the future if he needed something from you, he'd pay with his labour. If you look at tribes today, this is what they essentially do. They don't use barter with one another, but use informal credit systems.
I don't think the subjective value of bartered goods would be the problem with barter economy. By that logic a currency based system would not work either. In a currency based system, goods you buy and sell also have subjective value. Because the value of currency relies on being able to buy things consistently, consistent large scale trade would not be possible according to that logic.
Ben Lash the currency itself has an objective value, or at least a communal subjective value as far as the market is concerned.
The value of currency is not more objective than any other commodity. Just like other commodities, its price is determined by supply and demand and people's view of the value. Also, the value of money is only relative to the value of goods so if the value of goods is inconsistent and subjective then so would the value of currency. As we have a functioning economy, it is clear that an economy can operate with goods of subjective value.
Wow, you made the history of money so fun! Why can't Educators in the school system teach like this?
omg I just got that! Bread, lettuce, and chedder are slang for money. Also Turkey sandwich. Doble entendre tre magnifique!
awwww i wanted a video on cryptocurrency! Your presentations are great! thanks so much for educating us!
That stick fact is sick!
I’m part of a trading group that bans money on philosophical grounds (Bunz/Palz). Transit tokens, beer, gift cards, and the points system on the Bunz app became the de facto currency. I’ve made hundreds of trades and at most five of them were exchange of goods for goods, and even then most of the exchanges were for things I didn’t necessarily want or need, but that I would tolerate more than he thing I was trading away.
"I don't want your dirty money!" ... Ohh, but I do lol
this is the first time i am watching your video. Name of the channel should me factpill. so much info compressed in 13 mins. great work
I enjoy your program. I am a history nut.
Awesome video thank you for the lesson
Another type of economy that existed instead of simple barter is debt. People would just keep tabs of what they owe each other and regularly hold assemblies to identify debt loops. Regular debt forgiveness was also a common feature in such economies.
Starting a “fact” with a “may have” inspires much confidence.
The Yapese people used to use giant "Rai stones" as currency, which could only be quarried from other islands. Because these stones were so hard to make and transport, it provided a natural form of currency control. Later, when David O'Keefe gave the Yapese iron tools, it became much easier to make Rai stones, which resulted in inflation. A movie was even made about this story, "His Majesty O'Keefe".
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
Step back sent me here. Your awesome. Subscribed
To quote Coco Chanel: "The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive."
Danielle great show but where is the link you mentioned?
Guillermo, sorry it wasn't pinned on to the original works cited list! Here's the link and I'll add it above. (good catch)
facebook.com/TwoCentsPBS/videos/1181286988680506/
I like your videos you should do one on fashion.
According to archeologists, barter didn't exist first. It was credit that existed first, meaning if you wanted something done, you didn't pay with bushels of wheat but instead you helped out the other guy with what he needed (usually labour) and then later he would help you out when he needed something. Barter only starts to really exists when there is no trust in the system and the monetary system broke down. If you look at tribes today, they don't use barter. They use an informal credit system (which was helping out with labour)
And they barter too
Wait, what? Prove this please
@@dontdoit6986 If we look at isolated tribes today, they never use barter with each other. They use an informal credit system. Much like what our early ancestors did. They only used barter when there was no trust in the system, I.e. when they traded with outsiders. This also happened in the collapse of the Roman Empire, people stopped using the coins, they bartered instead because the government broke down. So the popular idea that barter came first, then money, is wrong. It was the other way around.
so why is this crucial notion important? Because most economic models and theories today assume that the monetary system is in 'barter' mode. When in reality, the monetary system is full of IOUs and credits. There is no limited quantity of money. We're not bartering with each other, we're trading IOU's.
How about an episode on the origins of the high school ritual of prom?
Love this show!
This channel would have a million if they posted about every couple days
I love this channel
I failed to find the source "Should you buy bitcoin?" you mention near the end of the video.
It's not in the description.
Gold is also why the Lakota were forced out of their sacred Paha Sapa (Black Hills) in violation of their treaty rights. They didn't get at all compensated.
10:22 🤣😂😆 omg these pins are sooo good. I can't.
You touched on the Iroquois, but they have an interesting currency history. They invented wampum.
They had a culture that was basically communist, but they got into a cycle of vengeance wars with neighbor tribes (also Iroquois ) and proving your worth to the tribe became important and required proof of kills.
The warring Iroquois nations eventually made peace, and adopted the currency of wampum to exchange with each other on a personal and inter tribal level.
And this leads to the misunderstanding that Manhattan was traded for beads.
5:20 that is fascinating!
The US Dollar has been a reserve currency for several global currencies over the years. This means that governments hold US Dollars to support their currencies in the same way that they used to hold gold. The Euro and the Yuan also serve as reserve currencies but much less often.
Also, after 1933, the US continued to allow foreign governments to redeem their reserves of US Dollars for gold until Richard Nixon fully removed us from the gold standard in 1971. The global recession caused a run on the Federal Reserve Bank similar to the bank runs in the 30s.
mentalfloss.com/article/12715/why-did-us-abandon-gold-standard
www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-unlikely-to-lose-top-reserve-currency-status-soon-2018-04-03
Thanks to Extra History's series on the History of Money for some of this info.
Ya, fiat money is a very inefficient system
@@andydavis3075 if gold standard was better and efficient, why did everyone leave it?
@@therealnoodles7638
A few reasons
1. Keynesian economics monetary policy cannot work without fiat money. (Keynesian economics is flawed in general)
2. Government can't over spend with commodity money.
3. Wars expensive.
4. Politicians use money printing to create an image of them helping the public so, they can get votes
@@andydavis3075 how is keynesian flawed lmao we've gotten to the most efficient monetary system in economic history, by abandoning gold. Politicians do not print. It's all done on a computer. If they create money to benefit the population and get votes, it's a 2 for 1 deal.
@@therealnoodles7638
Have a good day pal
I really like her voice.
My friend wrote my number on a dollar bill and said to text my number the location of the bill. I still get random text messages from random people around the country telling me where the money has gone.
One big thing you missed is that money is not less an IOU than checks. That's why bills are signed by the head of your country's treasury, and it's even spelled out loud on many national bills, like the rupee. Except it's an IOU by the country, or it's central bank. There were also many cases of deflation where coins were worth more for their metal than their denomination. You might wanna look into that for a followup...
yeah currency is an IOU of the government.
DUCATS!!! I haven't heard that in AGES! Growing up in San Francisco, we used to say Duck Eggs, too! :-P
Yo, sister! I have watched the 2 cents video about bitcoin and it blew my mind. Why they don't have a channel on RUclips?
Extra Credits series on the history of paper money is super good
Time is money. Money is time. Those who have both, want more. Those who have neither want more. "Desires are the root of all suffering" -Buddha
Well done.
Aztec used cocoa beans as a means of payment. There is evidence of European shock when Natives would stop when they would see that the cocoa beans would fall. Something that can be brought back as the origin of chocolate . I would love to see the origin of chocolate and if you wish for more information I would be happy to help :)
Awesome
Pause for laughter OKAY
that was good
Question are ther germs that could be transfered on plastic credit cars?
Minting presses weren't invented to make it faster and cheaper to mint coins but rather to make it harder to counterfeit them. Earlier when coins were hammered metal with an emblem people could cut a bit of a bunch of coins and then make a new one with the pieces.
I know this video is a year old, but I wanted to mention that the 1834 burning of Parliament was started by burning hundreds of years worth of tally sticks.
@5:09 this whole time I thought "paper or plastic?" meant what kind of bags not payment method.
Great show! Is it true that the gold and silver brought to Spain from the Americas actually hurt their economy? I would like to know the truth.
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the transition to legal tender and how it differs.
Tally sticks seem odd. What motive would a debtor have to even hold onto the foil? "I just got a new spear, and all I had to do was lie and yeet a stick into the river!"
The motivation would be to pay off your debt and have good reputation in the community and maintain your ability to borrow
3:40: Explore and research the South African Mpondo People of the Eastern Cape Province. I have reasons to believe they are but 1 example of the 1-on-1 barter system working
Another great book on the history of money is Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
Hi,
Can you please make a video on Cannabis. It's different uses, why it was made illegal and Henry Ford making his first car from hemp fibre and running it on cannabis bio oil.
Thank you.
FYI: I think you are the shiz niz and your channel is super dope
FACTS ARE TRUE. "True Facts" is redundant.
"I don't want your dirty money!" Lol
*looks sidewayz at Dr. Fauci *
The fact that you said there could be cocaine on money make me sad because they smell so good and I always smell them
I wish I remembered where I heard that money was printed on "antimicrobial" paper and was unlikely to transfer diseases and such. I'll have to look that one up.
edit: A lazy search on google brings up a patent for a coating that renders the paper antimicrobial. I didn't look far enough to see if we actually use a coating like that, though. patents.google.com/patent/WO1999042658A1/en
Simple 1 to 1 barter or complex barter, it doesn't really make too much difference. Money still developed out of barter systems. Also, checks, credit cards, treasury notes, private bank notes, gold and silver certificates, etc. are considered not money, but money substitutes.
You reek of intelligence very good video I have subscribed
My only issue with number 5 is that there are several theories as to the cause of the Great Depression. Gold standard theory is only one of them. Wealth and income inequality is another (it's scary to think wealth and income inequality it's far worse today!)
Googl Selzmiyinfo under gold standard, if you ran out of gold reserves, your country goes broke if your government spent too much. It must match its spending with reserves. Thats why the gold standard prolongs a depression. Because the government is stuck unless it gets gold reserves.
TheRealNoodles she already made that point. My goal isn't to argue economics (I'm not even qualified to do so). My point is that there are different opinions on what caused and exacerbated the depression; as well as thoughts on whether it could have been prevented or not.
My point is that only one point of view was mentioned. Would have loved to see her address conflicting views as well as giving her own point of view.
There is also a theory that the federal reserve cause the depression, and that the new deal prolonged it
You NEEEEEED more subs goddamit..
The US was on the silver standard till 1964. Dimes and larger coins were made with silver.
Willow trees...the original blockchain. Who knew.
The book "Debt" also states barter states probably never was a big thing.
3:46
Regarding which came first money or bartering?
It is clear that humans did not recognize the facility of metals for *any* purpose, yes even war... until well *after* they were engaged in both agriculture and domestication (around 12,000 years ago)...since, in the absence of an intermediate currency (money), surplus imbalances can only be rectified *without loss* by trade it goes without saying that trade happened before metals were even being used for either agriculture or domestication emerged (which created goods for trade).
So bartering came first, period.
The only question is how soon after its emergence did it transition to currency systems?
Well that answer is more interesting...it depends on where you are. Some societies ...rather advanced ones like the Aztecs had domestication long before currency...in fact they never even developed metal weapons.
Many other cultures on islands or in jungles never even developed currency...to this day if it weren't for recent western influence they would still leverage a purely barter based system. The preponderance of these types of systems over those with actual currency gives a probability argument that bartering again came way before actual currency was invented ...particularly since we know in many places it was never actually invented (it was brought).
So the argument that bartering fails at scale (which is trivially TRUE) is NOT an argument against its existence prior to currency, those are two mutually exclusive ideas.
There's your answer....ignore what economists "think" about this the answer is in a logical and rational analysis of history , anthropology and archaeology.
You're welcome. ;)
I LOVE YOUR VOICE SOUNDS A LOT LIKE MINE.
1:45 you forgot BACON!
Fun fact. If you hold the white circle on a hundred dollar bill a face will apear
Inshago bone couldve been used the same way a tally stick?
Umm where did you get that outfit though? 😍😍
7:53 money isnt made from wood pulp but cotton and linen
Brigham Young also founded BYU
So Adam Smith was wrong? Oh, what a surprise 🤭😅
Some of the first coins were minted in ancient China, and they looked a bit like strigils or straight razors.
Hmmm I was always tought that it was complex barter systems that included labor, never heard of a 1 to 1 barter system but it seems one sided anyway how is 1 cow worth 1 goat? Maybe 5 goats
TheStackeddeck77 barter system is not that complex and adam smith just invented it because he didn't know some form of monetary system existed before barter.
TheRealNoodles you cant say its not that complex anything not 1 to 1 is complex, who cares how complex it is, complex is complex and who is Adam Smith I dont recall her mentioning his name.
@TheStackeddeck77
I guess you have to imagine yourself living waaaayyy back in those days when bartering was commonplace (I believe that bartering is still commonplace in certain places). Bartering is based on the barterers' needs. If you have a resource that I need and I have a resource that you need, we can make a trade. Then, the question is, how much of my resources am I willing to give up and how much of your resources are you willing to give up. That is the basics of bartering.
P.S. I am also confused about @TheRealNoodles mentioning Adam Smith. 😥
um the father of economics... you talk about barter but don't know who invented the barter model
TheRealNoodles yea you dont have to know who came up with something to know something about whatever that thing is
GUUURRRRRLL, I cannot get over your hurrrr!
Do you ever think that we’re going to get tattoos with a barcode as a form of currency?
10:20 That aged well.
@origin, 9:57
That doesn't seem to be the representation of a virus, but of a bacteriophage.
I see now that a bacteriophage is a sort of virus. My bad!
I dont dislike this channel, but i'm not sure i will stick, for the simple reason that it could be compressed a lot more. For example.. the first 1m30s are basically the intro which serves no other purpose but to ask "why do we use money?". So all in all.. the information delivered in this channel are good, but the information density doesnt feel like an efficient use of my time.
Edit: Just to be extra-clear: i'm mostly talking about the beginning of the videos, and some parts inbetween. 85% or so is fine.
When did people start pushing more a bi-metallic, gold and silver, system in the Us.
The important one is the fiet paper currency created in 1918 controlled by a group of banks called the federal reserve ...
Now in 1918 the US middle class was wealthy. ...but the new paper currency has a built-in 3% inflation tax in it.... so if you tax the US population 3% compounded for a hundred years. The banks end up with all the money and the people end up poor.
Not making this up. It's well documented. ...
Just leave your bills wadded up in your jeans pockets and wash them without checking your pockets. That will launder your money.
I'm still waiting on the facts about the distinction between "Notes" and "Money." The two terms were being used indiscriminately.