The invention of money - why precious metals are the most suitable commodity to serve as money

Money is something we tend to take for granted. We spend most of our lives trying to earn money, doing our best to succeed in business, or at the workplace. But few of us bother to ask - what is money? When we think about money, we imagine crisp bills of dollars, euros or yen. But we can’t explain why these banknotes are used as money, and not, for instance, seashells or pine cones? If we were to ask the average person where does money come from, they would probably say "from the government", or "from the central bank". However, this clearly wasn’t always the case, because the invention of money preceded the formation of governments or central banks. So how was money created?

This is the first video in a series about monetary history.

Music: Michael Kobrin - The Introvert

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