Home
Artists
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register
Partychan Telegram ThePornDude
Home Artists Posts Import Register

The History of Paper Money - I: Origins of Exchange - Extra History (Patreon)

Published:
2016-09-30 06:39:05
Edited:
2018-05-15 02:01:12
Imported:
2022-01

Content

New episode of Extra History!

Files

The History of Paper Money - I: Origins of Exchange - Extra History

Giant stones sunk under the sea? Cows? Cowrie Shells? What do they all have in common? They were all money. Find out how we got from exchanging these things to doing 8 hours of work for a stack of paper that takes 2 seconds to print on The History of Paper Money. (--More below) Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ ♪ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♪ Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/23isQfx *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1WdBhnm

Comments

Anonymous

Is there an Extra Credits episode on fetch quests? Because I was thinking of those throughout this episode. Edit: Looked it up, and this is the term for what I was thinking of, which is a variant on fetch quests. <a href="http://allthetropes.wikia.com/wiki/Chain_of_Deals" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://allthetropes.wikia.com/wiki/Chain_of_Deals</a>

Anonymous

Curious as to whether or not you'll be mentioning or at least referencing Karl Polanyi's "Great Transformation," notably his ideas on fictitious commodities, since it seems to be where the next episode is heading. Unless that's a spoiler.

Stormy Weather

Salt was also a huge early currency since it was hard (ish) to get and could be used for such a variety of purposes^_^

Anonymous

How long will this series be? It sounds like you guys basing this off the traditional story on the history of money. Right now I'm reading "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber. Interesting how he argue that debt and credit not trade is the origin of complex economies and that money arose from debt rather than visa versa.

Anonymous
>>2660151

Well not specifically about fetch quests, but they have done two on general quest design. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otAkP5VjIv8&amp;index=178&amp;list=PLB9B0CA00461BB187" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otAkP5VjIv8&amp;index=178&amp;list=PLB9B0CA00461BB187</a>

QuakeRiley

I seriously hope you mention the Knights Templar.

Anonymous
>>2660436

I was hoping somebody would mention Graeber's work here. Here's an awful lot in his book that is questionable, but his assertion of that that barter economies represent a failure mode of currency economies rather than their predecessor is one of his strongest theses.

shadowscribble

I hope you talk about our current evolution to money becoming entirely non-physical.

Anonymous

I stumbled upon something quite interesting when during research for a university project a few years back. The notion of the barter economy (trading goods for other goods) originate mostly from Adam Smith and 'The Wealth of Nations', as well as the idea that the barter economy is the both the first stage and the precursor for currency. However, some anthropologists have found evidence that suggest that in some primitive societies that do not barter and trade, an economy based on the giving of gifts acts as a way to get goods and services spread around.

Anonymous

Canadian here - just as a point of interest, our monopoly money has been polymer banknotes for around five years now. Works great, apart from a couple of instances of bills melting when someone forgot to take them out of their pants before running them through the dryer.

Anonymous
>>2662450

So, the idea of IOUs or trading favors, instead of immediate barter of goods in hand?

Jim McGeehin

There's another critical quality of commodity money that makes it work: fungibility. When a good is fungible, it means that it can be swapped out for itself with little loss. That's what made metals so worthwhile is that gold is gold, and 3 ounces is 3 ounces, whereas manufactured goods can be of different quality. Even those limestone wheels of Yap can be exchanged for another limestone wheel of equal weight, and thus, the commodity good can preserve its value. This in turn meant that value of the good directly correlated to how much of it there was, so value became a function of mass. Common methods of coin debasement involve removing the precious metal from the coin in question, and either replacing the weight or hope no one weighed it and accepted the currency as of the proper weight, and why trusted, calibrated scales were a valued commodity in the precious metal-backed economies. While shaving is a typical and common practice, one of the more humorous ones was to "sweat" the coin, by putting a bunch in a pouch and shaking it to collect the gold dust. This practice didn't yield much, but it was harder to detect than shaving. Fungibility leads into the next quality of money that's essential: malleability. When it comes to larger governments that need to control how much currency is in circulation, it becomes essential to be able to make the precise amount of currency required to be in circulation as easy as possible. This is why gold and silver were so valued. As soft metals, they were easy to mill ingots into sheets, stamp out planchets (blank disks ready to be struck by the die to become coins), then the hole-filled sheets could be melted and reforged into ingots to begin the process all over again.

Anonymous

I must say I really like the suit and bow tie on Dan.

Anonymous

Okay, a Doctor Who reference followed by a Superhero reference?!!? Y'all get a tripple-A Supah Kitty Hug for this episode!!

Anonymous

Great episode - can't wait for more!