Money in History E-Book

Karl Walker

• Herausgeber: Conzett Verlag
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 285

Beschreibung

The Parthenon, the cathedral of Rouen, the Sistine Chapel—without money, these great monuments could never have been built. Only with the circulation of money could the sophisticated division of labor develop that enabled construction of these cultural and economic masterpieces. The story of all that money has enabled, from antiquity through the Middle Ages and especially in the Gothic period, is the subject of this illuminating, richly detailed book. Be prepared for some surprises in this tale of money and culture.  

Leseprobe

Karl Walker

Money in History

Translated into English by George Reiff, PhD

This translation is dedicated to Stephen Zarlenga and the American Monetary Institute (AMI)

All rights are reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means,

without the written permission of the publisher.

© 2015 Conzett Verlag by Sunflower Foundation, Zürich

ISBN 978-3-03760-039-9

www.conzettverlag.ch

eBook-Herstellung und Auslieferung: Brockhaus Commission, Kornwestheimwww.brocom.de

ABOUT COINAGE OF GREEKS

THE MONEY BASED ECONOMY OF THE ROMANS

THE BARBARIANS AND MONEY

AWAKENING MONETARY ECONOMY

THE BRACTEATES

MEDIEVAL ECONOMIC BLOSSOMING

IMMORTAL CREATIONS OF CULTURE

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITIES

THE GERMANY HANSEATIC LEAGUE

THE SETTLEMENT EAST OF THE RIVER ELBE

EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

SOCIALIZING AND DRESS-LUXURY

JOY OF LIFE AND MORALITY

COMMENCING DECLINE

THE LOST MEASUREMENT

FALTERING DEMAND – BAD CONSEQUENCES

THE WAYS OF COUNTERFEITING

THE MONEY IN THE RENAISSANCE

GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE NEW WORLD

THE FERTILIZATZION OF NATIONAL ECONOMIES

CONQUEST OR TRADE

TRADE WARS AND CUSTOMS POLICY

JOHN LAW – AND HIS PAPER MONEY

ASSIGNATS – THE MONEY OF THE REVOLUTION

MONEY INFLOW AND POPULATION GROWTH

FROM THE STRUGGLE FOR GOLD TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND INFLATION

BACK TO THE OLD GAME

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR

ABOUT COINAGE OF GREEKS

There is no highly developed culture in human history that is not also based on a highly developed division of labor. Only division of labor enables us to surmount the needs of the next day in order to make the mind free to establish greater and enduring things. Division of labor requires, however, the exchange of services and in an advanced stage it requires a developed trade.

In old times trade may have been formed out of giving gifts and receiving gifts in return like it is still a custom between tribesmen and children. The true character of this giving “gifts” is shown through the unwritten law, to exchange gifts of equal value. When Glaucos gave his guest Diomedes a golden armor and received iron armor in exchange, the poet of the Iliad notes with the admonishment that Zeus “took totally away his senses from him”.

Altogether, trade seemed to have been conducted in exemplary nobility. Herodotus writes about reports of the Phoenicians, “there is also still Libyan land and humans beyond the pillars of Heracles. When they came there, they would unload their goods and go back to their ships and make a big smoke. When the inhabitants saw the smoke, they would come to the sea and put gold there for the goods and then they would retreat once again. The Phoenicians, however, went to shore and when it was enough gold, they would take it and head home; if it was not enough, they would board the ships once more and wait patiently. Then the inhabitants would come back and add some more gold and some more till the Phoenicians were content. Nobody, however, would dupe the other because nobody would touch either the gold or the goods unless the goods were paid for” (see Robert Eisler: “Das Geld”, page 49).

This may have constituted real barter despite there is talk about gold but not yet in the sense of money like it is the later meaning of the word (gold is in German “Gold” and money is “Geld” and derives directly from the word Gold, George Reiff).To trade various products equivalent in nature is an impossible task. As this task, however, corresponds to a need and as it is therefore reasonable, there had to be a reasonable solution. This solution mankind found in that peculiar thing that he calls “money”. Since olden times, many things have served as money that we can not accept as money nowadays: cattle, shells, skins, slaves and metals of all kind were temporarily accepted not because of their immediate usability, but because of the opportunity to trade them against the things that were really coveted for. With this they became an interconnection in trade that facilitated trading: they became money. That this development gave precedence very soon to precious metals is self-evident. Even among Assyrians and Egyptians hacked silver was already known and this was not more than a small piece from the caked metal that was cast in molten form into water (in order to form those metal cakes). From here a direct way led to a consistent denomination; bars, rings, stamped bars, ingots and stamped coins followed.

Within the history of coinage the Lydians are known as inventors of the coin. Their coins consisted of an alloy from silver and gold. The very productive gold mining of the Lydians was basis of the fabulous wealth of their King Croesus, who lived in the 6th Century B.C. and who had at that time already a highly developed monetary system in his country. Wherever money appeared for the first time, the slumbering forces of new awakened like being touched magically and sources of commonwealth and prosperity opened up, artisanship and arts developed and man surmounted the mere necessities of the day and started works that would survive generations. Where money disappeared, however, there the structure of culture decayed as the basis of the division of labor disintegrated.

Around the middle of 7th Century B.C. the first coins of Greece were minted on the island of Mycenae. Now the silver of the trader did not need to be examined and weighed anymore, as coined pieces could be counted and calculated. Before those times, cattle were also the most common medium of trade “money” in Greece. In the poetry of Homer, the coin is unknown and this is why all values are always measured against cattle – the golden armor of Glaucus is worth 100 cattle; and Laertes pays Euricleia with 20 cattle (see Müller-Lyer: “Phasen der Kultur”, München 1929, page 250). Daughters were precious at that time because they brought cattle if they found a husband; sons, however, only incurred costs. By inventing money, trade was simplified and this relief of trade is the cause of development of commercial production of Greece; with the impulses coming from the blossoming trade artisanship, arts and science were powerfully promoted. Every better artisan in Athens or Corinth employed serfs and slaves in his workshop. Also, it was nothing unusual that a rich person would transfer a workshop or a trade business to a slave where he would work and trade independent for the profit of his master. The father of Demosthenes (greatest orator of Athens) owned a knife smithy and a chair factory with altogether more than 40 employees and he earned so much money from these enterprises that he left behind 40 talents of silver or nearly 200,000 Gold Marks (about 4,000,000 US Dollar as of 2012, George Reiff). Cleon ran a tannery and Hyperbolos a manufacturing place for lamps. It is enlightening that such a production must have had as pre-condition, a domestic market able to absorb the produce and also a far-reaching trade network. But the people of antiquity were sitting as Herodotus said “like frogs around the pond” at the costs of the Mediterranean, which facilitated trade by nature. And this trade with other people developed every specialized branches of production. Miletus, Chios and Samos manufactured woolen fabric, carpets and previous garments. Chalcis and Corinth exported weaponry, earthenware and jewelry. In Thebes and Sicily were located the best wagon builders and Aegina delivered small consignments and fashion accessories.

Regarding of the mathematical denomination of coinage the Greeks were following the numinous number 12, while the Semitic tradespeople used the decimal system. The Greek Silver Stater consisted of 12 oboloi coins, which were the smallest denomination. A coin in between was the drachma, which was the most used coin for daily use. This coin had the value of 6 oboloi. Apart from the Silver Stater there were also Gold Stater coins. For the trading business of the large merchants the mine served as common coin, which had a value (meaning the weight) of 60 drachmas whereby 60 mines in turn constitute one talent.

According to influence through Phoenicians and Syrians the mine has been adjusted to 100 drachmas; however, in general the denomination by the dozen remains, whereby the number 60, which is dividable by all number from 1–6, retained dominating meaning. According to nowadays standard the buying power of the Greek money must have been exemplarily high. Solon changed the draconic penalties that had to be paid in his times (640–559 B.C.) in sheep and cattle, into fines, whereby one sheep yielded one drachma and one cattle 5 drachmas. No wonder that the new money in which property and wealth were concentrated in a mobile form was generally valued.

On the sunny side of the increasing wealth an increasing number of people could focus on arts and science and so there evolved a lot of talents out of the mass of people.

But the money-based economy had also a dark side; with all the services that money rendered to man, it also intertwined him more and more in dependency. The more we venture into specialization of our commercial activity, the more we are without condition dependent on the mediation of the exchange of services through money, and the deeper is our fall if money denies us once its service.

Soon the time came when warfare was dependent from money. During the war against the Phoenicians, Gelon let his spouse Damarete manufacture silver coins from her opulent silver jewelry and the rich female citizens of Syracuse followed her example. And after the enforced victory she moved the precious tribute of 100 talents that had been given by the Carthaginians in exchange for mild treatment of their prisoners of war, to the issue of coinage. From this resulted the magnificent deka-drachma, which in the light of the nature of coinage reflected clearly the high culture of Greece (see “Die schönsten Griechenmünzen Siziliens”, Insel-Bücherei Nr. 559).

The Greeks would not have been human if they did not become wanton and without measure after their rise. As all treasures of this world and the nicest garments and the select delights were available for money, the naïve man of this early culture was seized by a greed for money. The Greek farmers sold their harvest, laid bare all their provisions just in order to get money. The indebtedness of the soil began. “The pawn stones innumerably constricted mother Earth’s dark hued land” we hear complain Solon. For money loans 36% and more interest had to be paid. A social decay set in and who once was in need, sank soon into slavery and peony while on the other side wealth increased.

Soon the cities were overcrowded with impoverished people who had to be fed with grain deliveries and be entertained with theater plays. Social insecurities and riots became more frequent. Within one single human generation there were 2 times all rich people slaughtered, the properties re-allocated and the pawn bills burned. But such actions did not change the start of the process of financial emaciation of Greece. Grain import and the necessity of luxuries for the rich caused a steady outflow of money. Around mid-5th Century B.C. the Athenian Tetra Drachma was the most current silver coin of the world of that time; gold coins were also still struck in Athens during these times. But the grain for bread came from Egypt and it cost money and the war armies also cost money and the social decay destroyed the domestic market while foreign trade became passive and swallowed silver drachmas* and gold starters never to be seen again.

(* Drachma means in Greek “the condensed” and concerned originally a weighing unit and then a unit for calculations. Differences in weight and value were denominated in parts or multiples of the drachma. The double drachma was the “Didrachmon”, the quadruple drachma was the “Tetradrachmon” and the rarely minted octuplet drachma was called “Oktodrachmon”, whereby the Dekadrachma was more current as tenfold of the basic unit.)

The new oligarchical Government of Athens got 1500 of the riches citizens executed after the sad end of the Peloponnesian War in order to impound their property in order to get money into the Government’s coffers. But the result was disappointing; real estate of the rich was unsellable because nobody was left who had money. And who would have dared to show that he still had money if he had to expect to be counted among the rich now who were worthy of death because of being rich? And so two causes worked together to remove the money from the market:

Firstly, the real drain of money to merchants from foreign countries who delivered grain for bread for the people as much as the spices and luxury for the wealthy; and secondly the speculative expectation and fear that money could get even more sparse and more valuable measured against general demand. Through all times a thing is just then sparse in the very moment when it is needed in an obvious way - because scarcity increases the value. For the market and for trade who are dependent on the flow of money, the drying up of money circulation meant a devastating reduction of business. The disintegration of the division of labor was inevitable. The temple treasures were already eroded; the treasure of Delphi is estimated as value of 50 Million Gold Mark (about 1,000,000,000 Dollars as of 2012, George Reiff) – in previous buying power a horrendous sum. But the permanent outflow of money that could not be statistically detected and certainly not evaluated regarding its effects, brought down trade and economy to a standstill. Agriculture was already destroyed and now came the downfall also to trade and commerce. Is it surprising if people are not able to create anything grand anymore if it fell from its height of a developed division of labor and free market to the lowlands of primitive rustic home economics?

It may be tragic but so is the course of things in the world that insight of the wise echo unheard so often. “Praise Lycurgus” proclaims Pythagoras because he banned gold as cause of all crimes! Lycurgus as single legislator of Greece had tried to keep his state Sparta away from dependence of gold; the money of Sparta was made from iron, which was hardened in vinegar. But Sparta was nonetheless intertwined with the general dependence through interconnection with general trade. The decay of the money order destroyed the high blossom of Greek culture. After only a few generations, impoverished goat herders stood before the temples and broke off huge slabs in order to build their own pitiful homes. They lived once again in subsistence trade.