The REAL History of Money

The Origins of Money explained. How money was invented and the evolution of money.

Listen to my podcast 1Dime Radio (on all podcast platforms)

This video debunks myths about the history of money and evolution of money

Timestamp:
0:00 What is Money?
2:23 The Myth of Barter
6:50 The Origins of Money
8:38 The Evolution of Currency
9:48 Why This Matters

Credits:
Written, Narrated, and Directed by 1Dime
Music: Space Station Silicon Valley OST and Voodoo Vince OST

Sources:
Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber
Blood and Money: War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire

Check out more 1Dime content:

About 1Dime (not One Dime):
1Dime is an educational channel dedicated to countering one dimensional thought by analyzing socio-political issues through the lens of political economy, political theory, history, and pop culture

[Dimee]

Subscribing, clicking the bell, liking, and commenting also helps!

[Gokanaru]

It's a complete mindfuck that some of the most respected historical authorities on subjects still taught today were basically bullshitting half the time lmao great video :]

[anarchisttechsupport]

Graeber? Graeber!!! That's such a good read. And its so satisfying to see it inspire more digestible media. And you've added to my reading list? Thanks comrade!

[desi_anarch]

Learning that Barter is a myth has turned my world upside down. Ill be thinking about this for days.

[devinfaux]

Turns out "common sense" is more often "common nonsense."

[HollisPresnell]

It would've been worth mentioning that coinage was originally created so that city-states could pay for soldiers in advance during wartime.

[dannywindham]

Another excellent video by One dime the gold bugs are foaming at the mouth this morning. Thank you

[Gunbladefire]

ayyy David Graeber's Debt the First 5000 years! Love to see it.

[Juice]

I didn't have any chickens or cows to trade you for the entertainment and educational value of this video, so I hit the "like" button instead.

[IkomaTanomori]

I'm a nerd because the sources for this are some of my favorite books.

[sideeggunnecessary]

Barter theory doesnt make any sense anyway, what are you going to do? Trade grain and wheat for grain and wheat? Or does one farmer travel with coin while the other stays behind and farms?

[MuadMouse]

Oh yeah, sources! Thanks for once again adding munitions to the agitation arsenal!

[eddiii]

Really great vid! Paul Cockshott recently started making videos on this topic and they pair really nice with this one.

[FoxyFemBoi]

Honestly, I can only think of a few cultural examples of "barter" but they don't reflect the common myth about bartering. There are instances (even up to this day with some groups that have developed or indigenous peoples) of different cultural groups/tribes/whatever you like to call them at usually specific times of year or seasons traveling or meeting up to trade already pre-specified items, like per se two islands an hour or two boat ride's away trading potatoes and oysters, or two villages with different major crop yields. Sometimes these are even exchanged in more of a gift economy type way, where they will each give each other as much of their excess yield as they can spare rather than bartering at all.

This however doesn't reflect the entire economy of either cultural group (often both of which will use money, and often different currencies) and doesn't reflect the individual-to-individual barter myth. It's one of the few times a double coincidence regularly occurs. It's almost closer to what Noncompete describes in terms of contracts between companies/corporations today exchanging goods and services directly through contracts rather than exchanging money. It's just an unwritten cultural contract understood by both parties.

[sugarshanea.m.]

libertarians punching the air rn, great video!

[DinoCism]

You say there's no straightforward story but go on to describe what sounds like a pretty straightforward story to me: money was invented by empires so people would have something to pay taxes with and so they would have a quantifiable unit to do their accounting with. If anything it's a more straightforward and much easier to imagine story than Smith and Aristotle's libertarianesque fever dream. Tbh, now that I think about it libertarianism is essentially an entire ideology based on a fairy tale which a long dead economist lifted from a long dead philosopher who admitted he was straight up "winging it." Well, now we know who to blame for all this bitcoin hyping neckbeards who bitch about age of consent laws. Thanks Aristotle!

[elonmusksellssnakeoil]

Listen to the man, he is literally named after money!

[StefanReich]

Another myth going down!

You can't imagine how often I talked to people about this topic. I start by questioning the value of money. Then, they invariably present to me the barter theory in a one-liner (as if I hadn't heard it before) - "But it would be quite inconvenient to exchange chickens for cows all the time, huh?". Then, the discussion actually already has ended for them, as if they had somehow delivered a final proof of why money is the best thing ever. Well, usually I at least have time for the closing line of "Well, maybe there is a third way besides money and barter?"

[thinkinggrin]

I find it funny how histroy often comes with this footage where a camera goes through an ancient maps with cool looking tools on it.

Nice use of "Paper Please"-Sound. :D
Great use of sound overall. Not over the top but with
an intent in mind.

[tcmackgeorges]

2:04 I do like that you say “it’s not just backed by faith” because your definitely on to something by not completely rejecting that part of what makes money work as social construct is faith based. If by social construct we mean social phenomena that are constituted by social relations, contingent on historical developments outside of which it cannot exist, then what holds our collective understanding of this thing, that has a reality that far proceeds our own contact with it, has to be something a kin to faith. If we situate MMT in relation to political theology, which accounts for how our hard and brute political concepts (legislative, executive, and juridical) have their origins in religious and theological contexts, it’s hard to accept this. It’s not be coincidence that sovereign currency are called “fiat” currency, fiat which literally translates from Latin as “let it be done” GOOD JOB!