[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 @ 22:52 +0200, Joost van de Griek said:

> On 8/27/06 6:22 PM, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> 
> > Sun, 27 Aug 2006 @ 11:28 +0100, Mike Meredith said:
> > 
> >> The amount of FUD we get to hear about the Euro is astonishing. As if a
> >> nation could lose it's identity because it changes the currency.
> > 
> > What's funny is how much european currency is really based on the same
> > ancient coinage, so really it really wasn't part of their heritage
> > anyway.
> > 
> > Europe is made up of barbarian nations that took over after Rome fell,
> > and they had no standard currency except that of Rome.
> 
> That's not entirely true. After the fall of Rome, most of Yerp went back to
> using actual precious metals for coinage, only later returning to the Roman
> system of currencies representing certain monetary values.

Most of the barbarians didn't use currency very much, and certainly not
as their primary trade resource.  They almost all used barter the
majority of the time, with precious metals used as an equalizer to even
up trades.

Also, until Rome actually got currency flowing well enough, there wasn't
a lot of benefit to it anyway.  Local currencies were useless unless
they were pure metals, and even then it could be hard to trade with
across distances and/or with people who didn't know it.  Barter just
worked better.

Precious metals were mostly used as an equalizer to assist barter, not
replace it.

In particular, look at the Huns and Visigoths.  They both horded gold
and currency but didn't use it.  It was for bribing those who did, and
buying off Rome or buying things from Rome.

Aside: it's really worth nothing that even today barter is very common,
but most people don't know it even when they are doing it.

A lot of us on this list and rescue certainly do it. 

Raise your hand if you ever bought something specifically to trade for
something else?

I thought so... :)



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- [Well, I have entered the "metallic years." 
Silver in my hair, gold in my teeth, lead in my ass... -- Sheldon Hall in
the rescue list]