Post by 1dave on Aug 24, 2020 4:48:29 GMT -7
For millennia when groups of people met, each group had things the other group wanted, so trading began.
For a while wealth was in herds of animals, skins, even sea shells (wampum).
After a while, people began trading bits of metal, but wagons were required for the wealthy to haul huge chunks of copper, bronze and brass.Then the mental invention of MONEY happened!
"The lubrication for trading"
Really - money only exists in our heads, not in the bits of metal and paper.
"The lubrication for trading"
Really - money only exists in our heads, not in the bits of metal and paper.
Top row left to right: 157 BC Roman Republic, AD 73 Vespasian, AD 161 Marcus Aurelius, AD 194 Septimius Severus;
Second row left to right: AD 199 Caracalla, AD 200 Julia Domna, AD 219 Elagabalus, AD 236 Maximinus Thrax
Think about this. For over two thousand years a denarius (a silver coin about the size of a dime) was considered the value of a man's work for one day.
With our runaway inflation, what kept it stable for so long back then?
One thing I think was that there were few coins around so it was mostly book keeping, no actual coins to steal.
But there is more than one way to steal. Starting with Nero in AD 64, the Romans continuously debased their silver coins until, by the end of the 3rd century AD, hardly any silver was left.
The last quote from the third set of YAHOO answers I find interesting:
Money, is a part of you. so think of money as a change from your services.. you are your money, because your money is a product of your energy, strength and brain....