The History of Paper Money - The Gold Standard - Extra History - Part 6

📜 History of Paper Money! Part 6
Even as the use of paper money grew, ties to the gold standard remained... and remained challenging. From the First Opium War to the Great Depression, events around the world stretched the capacity of bullion-based economics. So what - and who - finally abandoned it?
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Part 3 - • The History of Paper M...
Part 4 - • The History of Paper M...
Part 5 - • The History of Paper M...
Part 6 - • The History of Paper M...
Series Wrap-up & Lies Episode - • The History of Paper M...
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[@InMaTeofDeath]

So it got too complicated to deal with and humans said fuck it.

[@Gilhelmi]

InMaTeofDeath Yep, that is basically most of human history in a nutshell.

[@carlosbaldellou]

It's surprising how many things in history are a result of saying "Fuck it"

[@Jaegerrants]

But that strategy seems to work, maybe we should say Fuck it to a lot more things, say religion and politics for starters.

[@iPhatDeluxe]

+carlosbaldellou Kinda like you and I :D

[@Loyal2Luna]

To that I say Amen XD

[@Monochromicornicopia]

This explains so much. Now I understand why life seemed better in the 40's and 50's to old people: The U.S. was riding high on a very profitable world war.

[@neeneko]

*nod* beyond that part, the US government had just made massive investments in industrial infrastructure, so all that wartime building switching over to civilian markets flooded the economy. There was also a speculation boon that doesn't get talked about quite as much. On the west coast, land that had been given to rail companies to develop but had laid fallow started getting taxed, so there was a 'flip it as quickly as possible' rush. When you hear people talking about the collapse of rural economies in the west (mining, ranching, logging), this brief period of rapid growth and stripping is what they are comparing against.

[@neilisbored2177]

Well, also because nostalgia.

[@nolanzandi]

Plus really cheap oil from foreign oil companies in the middle east until those countries nationalized their oil reserves in the 1970s.

[@RihannaIsIluminati]

Brad Smith lol “real money”

[@LunaS043]

@Brad Smith Did you even watch any of this series in the slightest?

[@bridgecross]

"We accepted money as the medium by which things are exchanged, not the value for which they are." I love clear and concise explanations like that.

[@Gilhelmi]

Some people may not have thought about this yet, but there are probably retired economics experts that started their careers on the Gold standard. Who may have even debated the topic and helped steer the course of history. EC, find these men and women of history and interview them. They are still with us, but will be in their 70's. Hurry, time is short.

[@BoxStudioExecutive]

So, like...Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen? Oh shit.

[@Gilhelmi]

Exactly, and they are not getting any younger. I do not have much money, but it would be worth it to see EC interview these people.

[@kitsunehanyou09]

This sounds like a great idea! It'd be a real treasure to be able to listen to their interview with the EC crew... preferably with a summarized and digestible form after that links back to the original interview, just in case :D

[@BoxStudioExecutive]

Gilhelmi My comment was meant to point out the irony that ALL of the Chairs of the Fed in recent history grew up and studied economics when the gold standard was still a thing. They're aren't retired. They're still here. And, they're the ones with full control over money. And, I don't think it's had any effect on their views towards money.

[@Gilhelmi]

You're right, still would be a fascinating interviews.

[@LeiosLabs]

Man, this series is worth it's weight in gold!

[@Roxor128]

But all the electrons storing the files would weigh attograms at best. You're saying it's worthless.

[@Mlpzeldafan011100]

Roxor128 nah man it's got pictures and words, print the script and images

[@michaelhenman4887]

I wanted to reply this so bad as soon as I saw LeiosOS's comment, damn you for getting in there first!

[@mathgasm8484]

too bad his ad revenue is paid with that paper money instead of gold.

[@joshuawittenberg8975]

Isn’t the internet, and by extension, this show, weightless. I do also like this show though.

[@Alverant]

Thanks for mentioning how devastated France was after WWII. A lot of people in the US give France grief for surrendering to the Nazis. The thing is they didn't have the means to fight back and did the only thing they could do for their own survival. Given how the French Resistance helped the Allies, calling them cowards is an insult to their sacrifices. I think they deserve their own Extra History segment, if only as a one-shot.

[@AkaiAzul]

Dat Maginot Line, dough....

[@89Wrathchild]

Alverant Many French claimed the Americans were worse than the Nazis. I can't imagine that being true but there you go.

[@IcyHaze02]

In hindsight, France made the right choice. The two options pretty much were; surrender and trust that their allies will finish the fight, or have the civilian population slaughtered. And honestly, I believe it could even be a three-parter. First episode shows the build up to the surrender (I personally believe it was the tactical and technology ideological differences between the French and the Germans that led to France's defeat). Second episode would be about the Resistance. And the third would be the aftermath.

[@76Boomer]

I'm sorry, how many french jews were systematically exterminated by the US? How many villages were massacred by the US? How many french people greeted the Germans as liberators? I know it's popular and edgy to shit on the US, but if you are making such absurd statements you have a lot to learn about history.

[@eddydelo]

At the same time, the U.S. did reject jewish refugees feeling refugees until they liberated the first camps in 1944.

[@SovietWomble]

Very interesting batch of episodes! Nicely done.

[@Dylku123]

Fix your upload schedule!

[@homesteadinginthesierras4977]

Why hello there

[@ryuu6117]

Are you THE SovietWomble ? Fix your upload schedule.

[@crossedwingedairguard5539]

Never thought I'd see you here womble

[@aanrrat1354]

I didn't think the womble cared about money's history

[@TheMaplestrip]

The great thing is: this series indirectly helps me understand so many historical events, like the good rush and the great depression. fascinating series, guys, awesome work!

[@wojtekthebear4958]

I kind of wish they had more time to talk about these events as they glossed over many of them, like the Great Depression. There were problems with the gold standard not mentioned in the video that many economists today say was the cause for said depression. Basically economists think the gold standard caused the depression.

[@TheMaplestrip]

Well, that's a hypothesis you can come to just by watching this video.

[@wojtekthebear4958]

***** The video mentioned that the countries still on the gold standard (which was almost all of them) were hamstrung during the recovery, but it didn't say that the standard was the cause of the depression itself.

[@HxH2011DRA]

MapIestrip They "forgot" to mention the Petrodollar tho (and high maple!)

[@TheMaplestrip]

High HxH! Yeah, I agree, that's something that could have been added, though I suppose they didn't want to get "even more recent".

[@Bottlekiller]

One ounce is like 4 kilometers, right?

[@petervilla5221]

No, its about 1.618 Joules.

[@hart-of-gold]

No its three sevenths of a Thingamajig.

[@PlanetaryDefense]

It's less than twelve parsecs.

[@Broockle]

Rofl xD I do forgive EH for this one cause they were just giving an example. But ye, normally that would bother me too

[@Artista_Frustrado]

but only if you have them in the range of 6 farenheits

[@LaZodiac]

It's hilarious that money exists the way it does...basically because of apathy. "I'm too tired to work out our system so let's just peg it on the dollar" "But the dollar isn't worth anything anymore they don't have it attached to gold!" "EH"

[@ferdousalrafi6126]

I could argue that a large part of what makes the modern world is lazy human beings being lazy.

[@FlyingDominion]

"Sure it is! It's worth the other currencies!"

[@Armendicus]

you know what its better for it. There are too many human on earth to run on non-intrinsically valuable metals. Soon (hopefully) Humanity will wake up and realize collectively that nothing matters and that value is of the mind.

[@tonysladky8925]

But the big thing I'm noticing in this series is that gold wasn't really worth anything either, other than "Whatever Merchant A will give Customer B in exchange for Amount of Gold X"; that seems to be the whole philosophy that was being explored by all these people experimenting with Paper Money, or at least the most recent one (and that guy in one of the earlier episodes who printed a bunch of worthless money and was then promptly strangled with a bowstring). What is gold actually "worth"? Some jewelry, some useful electronic components and a coating on the visors of space suit helmets. That's hardly a thing worth locking our currency to. I'd be curious to see if there even is a commodity that our global economy could be re-attached to as a commodity currency. I'm beginning to have my doubts it would be gold, but perhaps something…

[@DeathsOnTheYAxis]

I mean if American society somehow collapses the world will probably be dealing with bigger problems than everyone having to float their currencies.

[@GoodGarret777]

The power of british patriocism is a force beyond measure.

[@GoodGarret777]

It was pretty much the main/only force driving the people through the two largest wars the world has ever seen, and back out the other end again.

[@xenon8342]

Indeed it is, And our stupid fucking governments have gone and shat on that in the last couple of decades

[@GoodGarret777]

Herpicus Mc Derpington Yeah Thatcher anyone?

[@paige4404]

Kieran Morgan Ugh, don't even mention that name

[@GoodGarret777]

***** You can never kill british patriocism, but the younger generation are trying pretty hard

[@chris7263]

wow, this is FASCINATING. I always found economics boring and went cross-eyed when history books talked about the gold standard, but I'd never thought before about how much impact it really had on the parts of history I do find interesting.

[@hanssmirnov9946]

For more, I suggest checking out Money as Debt: /watch?v=jqvKjsIxT_8 It's really good at explaining things in simple and interesting terms.

[@KnakuanaRka]

3:21 Seeing the one guy take a bite out of the pink money just made my day. Hooray for EH’s humor!

[@008TheDen]

I love how these economic series combine interesting characters like John Law and can take the long view with explaining how both world wars tanked the gold standard. It's a really nice balance

[@fireaza]

You could say Nixon nixed the gold standard!

[@Marylandbrony]

*We wont be fooled again by the who plays.

[@volvoxfraktalion5225]

Marylandbrony ironicly

[@cageybee7221]

really france just played us......

[@laterkater4213]

I think it's also pretty amazing that we went from being paid for our work in cash, to cheques you could redeem for cash, to straight up 1s and 0s on a computer. I now just believe I have money, even though I only ever see a tiny fraction of it.

[@elizabethhicks4181]

+LaterKater you also have money because everyone else believes you have money. That's the only way it really works.

[@iKrepkii]

It's imaginary banking and I'm running low on imagination....could you spare me some of yours? ;)

[@laterkater4213]

Moon Shadow Ah, if only that credit card debt was imaginary too...

[@Healermain15]

It's utterly ridiculous, goes against all common sense and would floor anyone from before the 1950's out of sheer horrified bafflement. And yet the whole thing just sort of... works. Come to think of it, there are a lot of things we have in modern society that that applies to. If you knew where to push, it'd be really easy to collapse everything, yet it keeps going and has been for millenia.

[@Healermain15]

Then add in electronic stock markets. Which are often partially controlled by advanced automated processes (or as some might call them: AI's)

[@in4ser]

Interesting Fact: US was able to stay on the Gold Standard via the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 by screwing over the Chinese Republic. China, which had been recently unified by the KMT continued the Qing Dynasty practice of using the Silver Standard while most of the World used the Gold Standard prior to the Great Depression. So when the Great Depression hit most countries were unable to keep monetary supply with the demand of Gold and therefore forced to leave but since China was on the Silver standard it was largely unaffected. However in 1934, the US government attempted to combat its issues of monetary supply by passing the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and started to issue silver certificates and purchase large quantities of silver against the protests of the KMT. This lead to massive deflation and the inability of China to export its goods abroad which lead to economic problems in China, disillusion in capitalism and the international economy and growing discontentment along with the rise of the Chinese Communist Party.

[@sophiajenkins2780]

appulause for the extra history lesson

[@irtwiaos]

LOL US created its number 2 worst enemy. Remember the Republic of China was a WW2 ally and was likely to remain an ally of the western powers.

[@SoAS26]

America just messing with other stable countries ...why? Because it can.

[@crackedemerald4930]

That's hilarious

[@heronofheaven]

Nice, is there any books, articles, or webpages that i can read about this part of history?

[@gosucab944]

In other words the problem was solved by not giving a shit.

[@omegafoxxtrot7248]

Yet everyone tells ME that it's wrong to sit around and watch KZbin videos because I can't be bothered to care.

[@michaelberg9348]

yup, or rather, we replaced 'practically useless backing material A' with 'practically useless backing material B' (repeatedly), with the only real change, improved global communication. The solution isn't 'we ditched gold' it's 'we managed to solve : "They hand you this piece of paper *that you don't recognize and have no idea how to value* " '

[@stardude692001]

I wouldn't say the problem was solved, just everyone agreed to not acknowledge the problem. So far nothing on the scale of a world war has put enough pressure on the current system to find out if it will break.

[@TrangDB9]

England: South Sea Bubble - V: It Was Walpole - Extra History

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

If we were to get pressed on like in the world wars, inflation will probably occur in order to sustain the war.

[@ragingkrikkit9877]

Alternate title: How America won the World Economy.

[@Broockle]

Nah, they lost the monopoly in the decades following WW2. This video was really about the world accepting the paper money standard.

[@Broockle]

giyomu9 You did a funny. I get it, it's cute. But consider asking the native Americans in the reserves how they feel about having everything taken from them and given nothing in return and still being treated like second rate citizens. The Americans have plenty of mess to clean up with their neighbors and they have plenty of people struggling. Just sayin'

[@RussTaylorLegend]

We are living in a period of relative stability, yes. No current civil wars, ongoing genocides, or border conflicts... but we had a LOT of those things leading up to this point, and the scars left over from them have been festering as of late.

[@Broockle]

giyomu9 I'm talkin' about today yo. People that live in the Hopi and Navajo reserves in Arizona live in some serious poverty with families with no hopes of ever giving their kids a higher education, getting good jobs or to even get plumbing into their "housing". I've honestly never seen people this poor before and I've been to obscure places in India and Marokko. By far my biggest culture shock I ever had was visiting a Hopi village on one of the Menzas. It's pretty crazy how these people live without owning their land but at the same time their not treated as citizens by the Americans. If you drew and accurate map of the USA it would look like swiss cheese with holes everywhere. They should really be allowed their own embassies and land since these people really aren't part of the USA. All I'm sayin' is. You got shit at home that needs fixing!

[@Machtyn]

Thing is, though, they have all the opportunity to get higher education if they want it. The government will pay their way.

[@JonathanMakhi]

IT WAS WALPOLE

[@robertwalpole360]

Maybe. ;)

[@DragonTamerCos]

Nixon= Walople squared

[@robertwalpole360]

Lemu Huan I am not a crook!

[@horesfan400]

Walpole

[@DragonTamerCos]

Robert Walpole Yes, nixon did not do watergate!

[@ckbooks]

Another awesome and fascinating EH series. Topics like this, the South Sea Bubble, and the Brothers Gracchi are among my favourites on the channel, because they're not only interesting tales from history, but also incredibly educational parts of it that inform and contextualise a lot of how the world works today. Watching EH has really opened my eyes to the importance of history as a subject of study because of how much it allows us to understand modern society and make informed decisions in the future based on the successes and failures of the past. It's helped me to realise, more than anything, than nobody ever taught me in school *why* we study history, and as a result I regarded it as little more than "stories about the past". But history is so much more than that, and I hope that in the future more educators can take a page from Extra History's book and not just teach students about the past, but explain to them why it's so pertinently relevant to the present and future.

[@JasonTRogers]

That was a great history lesson. You guys put a lot of work into that. Thank you. Not only was it entertaining it is also very important to know. Thank you

[@Ardithel]

The most entertaining, interesting and informative series of videos in Extra History to-date. Thank you so much! Keep up the good work :D

[@extrahistory]

The gold standard survived for centuries. What finally brought it down? Support Extra History on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ExtraCredits

[@ccflegoandhistoryfreak4920]

Extra Credits hey can you do a extra credits series on the nicean reoccupation of Constantinople

[@elroyscout]

Extra Credits SPOILER ALERT: Fucking Nixon?!?

[@calebtaylor2614]

PLEEASE DO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR! I know next to nothing agot the intricacies of that war.

[@Arocks-lj8qr]

Extra Credits I see you made your video private and posted that comment, and them uploaded it

[@IceFish.]

do some history of the stock exchange plz

[@Karls_Clips]

i really love this series, you tell me about historical events i would never have known about. please keep it up guys.

[@Roguephilsopher]

This series was well informative. I enjoyed every second of it. Keep up the great work!

[@pekisi]

Man thank you so much for the dedication. Im almost in tears for the emotion that brings me the knowledge you are shearing. Cheers from a grateful guy here...!

[@DCdabest]

Man. This has been a great series. Makes you really appreciate just how much of history is the narrative of trying to make sure we have enough stuff floating around for people to use. To think that here in Australia we didn't float the dollar until 1983. Seems like such a straightforward concept too. 20/20 hindsight.

[@omarhuda4997]

can you continue this series to digital money. it's not too recent is it?

[@Mike-ls3bs]

Its the same system. They just converted paper into bits and bytes.

[@lucasrivera1895]

It is a little more interesting than that.

[@JackgarPrime]

Are you referring to things like Bitcoin? I think such currencies are still too new and still so fringe that putting them in a context for a series like this might not really fit.

[@Roxor128]

If you're referring to our current mainstream approach of transferring money between bank accounts, it's still the same as what Nixon put in place, just automated. If you're referring to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, I think we're still too far in the early stages of them for historical commentary. Also, I don't really see that much difference between Bitcoin and bank transfers. Just a matter of who does the processing. For one it's the network of Bitcoin miners, for the other it's the bank's servers.

[@estocasticom7511]

I would recomend you the video "Cryptocurrency & Blockchain" by the futurist Isaac Arthur (right here in youtube). It talk about the pros and cons of cryptocurrency, as well as especulating about its future use in interplanetary and interstellar economies.

[@dagamerking]

I always have this one guy show up at my retail job and says: "Remember its just paper. With nothing backing it". i being a good employee kept my mouth shut. UNTIL he refused for to give him ~$17 in change using paper money, he wanted it all in quarters, dimes, and nickels. Thats when i told him why went off the gold standard, what was said in this video was one of my reasons, but the main point i said was quote "To prevent our enemies from profiting from our own failings". When he asked for an example, i gave him the example of the Japanese invading and robbing banks of their enemies, then turning all that cash for gold, breaking the country economically as well as physically and asked if we went back to the gold standard what is stopping ISIS from using a third-party bank or any other loop hole to cash in and take all of our gold? We would be broke and they would rich. He didn't concede, but he did accept my cash, and then complained to my manager. That Ass.

[@Animenite97]

Also the same can be said about change: it's just pieces of metal, not even silver.

[@dagamerking]

Adam Collier while most of the coin is made other metals like zinc for pennies, there is a thin layer of precious metal on the surface. I do mean thin, like micrometers in width.

[@Animenite97]

Collin Bruce Yeah so basically none. Like "Yeah, there is one atom of silver in this coin; it's made of silver."

[@dagamerking]

Adam Collier there is enough silver in a quarter for it to be worth 24 cents. The remaining pennie is made up of base material. Unlike bills which in theory represent value, coins are value able because they have value.

[@Joke9972]

So, basically, our genetically embedded need and understanding defining 'to have' in 'to be' is their source of a abuse for their defining of 'to have' in their interpretation of 'to be in power'.

[@Saintphoenix86]

This has quite possible been one of the most informative, relevant, important and interesting series i have ever watched, just watching this alone explains events like ww2 in ways just talking about the events themselves don't quite nail down, I have been watching this channel since it started out way back on the old website, and you have now out-done yourselves, theres no way on youtube to convey a standing ovation so ill just have to type it. In short, well done team at EC well done indeed

[@IgniKing]

The ending gave me a feeling of victory for the world.

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

So 1971 is the closest in history this series has ever done. I wonder if it will ever be closer in other series.

[@Thraim.]

If they get much closer it stops being history and becomes "that thing that happened last Christmas"

[@Bombom1300]

German Reunification would bring us to the 1990's.

[@nakenmil]

Extra History: please cover Last Christmas, it was a very important historical period!

[@Gilhelmi]

Bombom1300 German reunification would be really interesting. I know people who watched the wall fall down. An American soldier who was a private. He was back in the states for leave and was pissed at missing the party of a lifetime. But the political clean up was crazy. What with East Germany being 50+ years behind West Germany infastructure and technology wise.

[@awesomeworld4405]

Yugoslavia's break up is also in the 90s

[@Mnjetster]

Absolutely love your guy's work, I love to read into history and you hook my attention to events/ideas I would never think would be that interesting.

[@muraalia]

This series was *really* interesting! Paper money is pretty odd when you think about it, but we barely ever think about it. Thank you very much for these episodes. :)

[@NatTuck]

Saying that the US dollar was overvalued in the context of the mid 20th century gold standard is a misleading simplification. By 1971, the US dollar had been off the gold standard for domestic purposes for quite a while. Americans hadn't been able to cash in dollars for gold for a while. Nixon was forced to eliminate the gold standard for international trade because the market price for gold in dollars was much higher than the "gold standard" rate set by international agreement. In gold, the dollar had become drastically *undervalued*, and following the gold standard the US was bankrupt. Basically, it was a classic bank run where the bank simply declared that they wouldn't be redeeming any bank notes and got away with it.

[@MrCrashDavi]

+

[@LarsPallesen]

"following the gold standard the US was bankrupt." And there's your problem.

[@zuthalsoraniz6764]

Though... isn't gold, in a way, also only worth something because everyone agrees it is? Outside of applications in industry, especially in electronics, gold is basically useless, for any practical purpose.

[@mennoltvanalten7260]

Which is why gold was only the replacement of silver, which of course is used... for something

[@pjrt_tv]

Yeah, the reason gold (and silver) were picked was because they were rare enough to not have crazy inflation. But still common enough that you can get it. But it started to become an issue because it was too rare to allow for massive economies. Nowadays, even paper money is dying and being replaced with electronic money. Now bytes stored in some bank's computer is what has value, because we all agree it does.

[@hanssmirnov9946]

As Erturk points out, gold is durable, rare, and valued by humans universally. Humans didn't dislike gold then agree it was good for the sake of financials, they already liked gold and started trading in it before they realized it was a good currency. That is why it is a good currency. Silver is better, as it is more plentiful.

[@Healermain15]

It helps that everyone was used to gold, and not to this newfangled paper money. Also, gold had a certain inherent value due to its wide adoption. Even if your nation went bankrupt, you could just move your pile of gold to the neighbours and it would still be worth a lot (though probably not as much). Paper money? If the backing nation falls out, who's going to accept THAT? It was the ink patterns and such printed on that paper that made it worth things. You can't melt it like you can melt gold or silver.

[@brandtlucasbrandt]

Ever heard of paperweights?

[@michaelcarroll5170]

Great series! The idea of non backed money always puzzled me, but you've explained it perfectly.

[@becnal]

These videos are truly excellent. Really well done. Thank you so much!

[@jesternario]

Interesting note: the color of the U.S. Currency denotes, or denoted, what it was backed by. When it was a silver standard, the dollar was blue. When it was a good standard, it was red. Green currency, or the "green back," is simply pointing out that the note it fiat currency.

[@jesternario]

Gold, gold standard was red. I hate autocorrect sometimes.

[@Gensek80]

Though you're right about the ink color on the bill, the term "Greenback" is much older. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenback_(1860s_money) . This is because US money has been on green colored material for a long time. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Note .

[@Gensek80]

But yeah, the color of the treasury seal indicated what the bill is backed by. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_dollar .

[@mirzaahmed6589]

US banknotes aren't really green.

[@onelowerlight]

So the main problem with the gold standard is that it restricts the ability of nations to wage war with each other. How is this a bug and not a feature?

[@randomchick1234]

Joe Varicella people aren't going to stop going to war just because they can't afford it.

[@omegafoxxtrot7248]

Because... War, war never changes. (But the value at which the lives of the people who fight in war are exchanged do.)

[@onelowerlight]

On the contrary: war is constantly changing. The total war of WWI and WWII was a very new thing, and shocked the entire world. To say that our global monetary system is a direct (and largely accidental) outgrowth of the most destructive war this planet has ever seen does not exactly inspire my confidence.

[@onelowerlight]

Even under the gold standard, though, nations were able to raise levies and defend themselves. War is not new, but today's monetary system totally is. What changed was that we entered an era of total war, where the entire society is materially committed to the war effort. Only then could we be convinced to move off of the gold standard. War is the health of the State, and the modern banking system (where "money" is backed by nothing but debt and mass delusion) is a con game that plunders the wealth of the citizens, in order to fund the State's endless wars.

[@omegafoxxtrot7248]

I have no experience in matters of war or applied politics, so I am not the one to continue this discussion. I'm just some random sixteen year old kid from Ohio, so I can't speak as to the actual effects of such systems on the people that must live under them; especially given that the only frame of reference I have for the time period this came from is this series of videos. Therefore I concede the point to you good sir and bid thee a fair (your time here.) Also thank you for actually presenting a point of view and not just cramming your opinion down my throat like everyone else I talk to. Your polite arguments are much appreciated.

[@linusrengholt8496]

Absolutley amazing serie! So simple and complicatet at the same time. Really starting to love this show, keep it up guys :D

[@VivekSharma-tm7kd]

Thanks for an amazing video! You truly have a gift for explaining things really well.

[@PicklePickle7]

the video was uploaded a second ago. Why does it say that the comments were uploaded a day ago.

[@dan-860]

yo yo people that give money on patron get to see it early

[@KabirPankaj]

yo yo I think patreon supporters get early access

[@PicklePickle7]

ohh ok that explains it.

[@anttibjorklund1869]

Seriously, this question is asked every week and every week it's answered....

[@shrimpisdelicious]

It was Walpole.

[@ShyanTheLegend]

your best and most relevant history series

[@aidanwansbrough7495]

Loved this series!! Brilliant explanation and execution, thanks :)

[@SirYohan]

Great series guys! :D hate to see it end, but can't wait for the next one!

[@vksepe]

Imagine if a single British pound was worth 10 dollars. We'd be buying Macs by the dozen.

[@vksepe]

John Doe Wouldn't it be 10 times more?

[@vksepe]

John Doe It's value I mean?

[@Necroskull388]

You don't get paid in money. You get paid in value. The whole point of this series is that money is the medium by which value is exchanged, not the value things are exchanged for.

[@nakenmil]

Think of it - in a bit of an odd way, but still - as loaves of bread. Say your family eats a loaf of bread every day. But then all loaves of bread are doubled in size. They would simply start eating half a loaf of bread. So if the value of the pound goes up, your employer would simply start paying you fewer pounds.

[@ZenoDLC]

Hey, at least your currency is worth around one dollar (heck, even more), what about country like Iran?

[@shanweeboy]

I guess they skipped over people in America crying "Muh Silver Standard" since the 1890's until the 1930's.

[@beaz3784]

Well, it never really came to fruition, so I guess they didn't consider it worth mentioning.

[@shanweeboy]

Matthew Beazley The silver purchase act would like to have a word with you.

[@Healermain15]

Unless it replaced gold as the backing for their monetary system, I'd say it isnt worth mentioning :)

[@shanweeboy]

sander heutink More like we went halfsies in this weird bullshit system to appease the silver standard crybabies.

[@onelowerlight]

Free silver was a major political issue in the 1890s, but the Yukon gold rush accomplished much of what the Silverites had set out to do.

[@Aultimaespada1]

Congrats, guys! That was the best history series so far. I hope you keep going in that style. I personally like when you stick to the facts instead of trying to embellish the story.

[@darragho6358]

This really needs another series to go with it where we talk about all the problems associated with money being back by nothing and the level of money being printed over the last 40 years greatly increasing from anything of the past but yet we have seen a stagnation in the wages of the middle and working class

[@EuropeanQoheleth]

Ah of course it was Walpole. Anytime you think it's Walpole you're right and anytime you don't think it's Walpole it's just that he did a very good job of covering it up.

[@robertwalpole360]

It's what I do. ;)

[@neilisbored2177]

Of course, all is Walpole.

[@TheNinjaDC]

So.... thank you Nixon?

[@Zach_Attack_1]

Nixon was actually a very good president, other than Watergate. He passed a lot of important laws which are still important today, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. as well as many others.

[@joshuawalker7054]

Not Telling Look up Nixon's obituary "He was a Crook" by Hunter S. Thompson. Nixon was a terrible president and a horrible person.

[@WannabeCanadianDev]

He's a decent President in retrospect but that's mainly because he HAD to pass those laws because Congress was under Democratic control as a super majority (Left over legacy of the New Deal).

[@JanjayTrollface]

We don't know yet.

[@LasertechStudios3142]

He may have passed some good domestic laws, but I will always remember him as the president who promised to end the Vietnam War and ended up escalating and expanding it instead. He's the reason why Laos is, per capita, the most heavily bombed country on the planet.

[@Energya01]

Congratulations guys, another great series on a tough concept! Very well done, loved it :)

[@lanceeverett5108]

EC Team, I listen to NPR, Freakonimcs, Planet money, and completed a few econ classes. This is the first time I learned in enough detail as to how and why we got off the gold standard. Good job EC team

[@jannmikoingelrabagogamingc6012]

John Law quote: "We accepted that money is the medium by which things are exchanged, not the value for which they are."

[@Broockle]

This was pretty mind blowing... Awesome! Though I gotta ask, where is Walpole?! xD

[@robertwalpole360]

Here I am!

[@Broockle]

Robert Walpole What'd you do this time man? Why do your actions ripple through time and space, messin' with our world economic system? Who else but Walpole?

[@robertwalpole360]

Broockle Time travel . . . just time travel.

[@op4000exe]

Time travel's a mess man, just go back to where you came from, seriously time travel's not worth it, unless you only travel forward in time, in that case it's totally worth it (unless apocalypse happends).

[@robertwalpole360]

op4000exe But time travel is so much fun! I get to see things that written history doesn't cover.

[@marcfabricius1882]

i have watched this series for so long and it is not gettin borring. keep up the good work

[@SanderDoesThings]

Probably would say the best series I've seen on this channel. Taught me way more that other KZbin videos could

[@PineappleLiar]

We still have coins in circulation that were once under the gold standard That's crazy.

[@samwolfenstein5239]

Mmm... sweet, sweet early access.

[@BenjaminPratt]

I absolutely loved this whole series. This was a fantastic end

[@kevinholt717]

Nice... Comprehensive and dispassionate view of macro economics. Much appreciated!!

[@JeremyWS]

Do extra history of calendars, plz!

[@stanleykijek6983]

Nixon did NOT take the USA off the gold standard, it was FDR that took the USA off the gold standard in 1933. Every country outside of the USA was still able to redeem US dollars for gold except US citizens, which was really unfair for US citizens. It was Nixon who stopped the conversion of USA gold reserves to other nations in 1971. Had Nixon not have done that, US gold reserves would have been all gone within a couple years.

[@syk13]

A delightful series. Thanks a lot, really enjoyed this.

[@ayme9153]

Keep doing all of these series - I really enjoy watching all of them :)

[@markhenley3097]

You should have made this video one second longer for some extra add revenue.

[@ZCid47]

that's a myth that comes from the fact that a 10-minute video can have an ad in the middle, please do not spread misinformation

[@Derp1819]

Which.. means more ad revenue, wouldn't it? Spread good information, not random denouncements.

[@ZCid47]

Derp1819 The issue is that people think that just because a video is 10 minutes, youtube gives you more money than if. I comment to let people know that does not work that way, that a longer video lets you put more advertising and not because there is a magic duration that gives you more money

[@scottscott8123]

ZCid47 You have to place the ads, right?

[@GameyCat]

@@scottscott8123 no you dont also sorry if im 4 years late

[@TiberiousNeruda]

So, would the knowledge of what deGaulle was about to do be the reason the US took the silver out of the dimes and quarters in 1965 (and lowered the silver content of the half dollar coins to 40% from 90% until 1971)? It always puzzled me why things happened then the way they did, and the timings of both the trade-in of Dollars by France and the US's abandonment of the gold standard are right there with changes to US coinage.

[@articcarton752]

bro never got an answer

[@mrmichaellatham]

I would never have learnt this wonderful piece of history. Thank you.

[@suganaj2015]

A great series man, I'm fortunate to came across this channel - it's simply Many of my questions hinders me for yrs

[@hollyhandgrenade42]

Many people might not like Nixon, but I like him.

[@MisterBrickFilms]

Many people might not like De Gaulle, but I like him.

[@robertwalpole360]

Many people might not like Walpole, but I do. ;)

[@Zach_Attack_1]

Nixon passed a lot of very important laws which are still in use today, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

[@antipyrene]

Cambodia has good reason not to like him...

[@christiandauz3742]

Started the Racist War on Drugs. The main reason US Prisons are packed like Concentration Camps and why Cartels own Mexico and Columbia

[@nelsonchereta816]

So in the end it was just a matter of necessity. The world didn't abandon the gold standard because of some philosophical ideal or as part of a carefully thought out economic process. They literally did it because they could no longer afford to stay on it. Really, paper money being backed by nothing more than faith was just another example of the old axiom, 'necessity is the mother of invention.'

[@xxxdumbwordstupidnumberxxx4844]

Honestly, the US probably could have stayed on the gold standard, with pretty much everyone's gold, but it was ultimately pointless to do so, so Nixon just cut the dollar from it. Nixon did an unusual amount of good things for the kind of man he was, come to think of it. (EPA, dialysis care, and this)

[@spacerat17]

This was the best series you ever made, thank you so much

[@SmilodonGer]

Just love your show! Keep up the good work and thank you for doing this :-)

[@doublepiedavid8908]

And now, in 2022, we are experiencing the negative effects of accepting money as an idea rather than a thing

[@rolandoantoniomirandamendo4633]

how so? the scarsity of other resourses would still be creating inflation: stuff would cost more gold and you would certainly still not have the gold you would need.

[@llSuperSnivyll]

So basically we went from the gold standard to the dollar standard.

[@rolandoantoniomirandamendo4633]

Not quite: Gold Standar, to gold standar with an extra step (pegging to dollars), to market standard now.

[@arvidp.247]

Extremely insightful, as always. I really enjoy these non-war topics.

[@alextaylor3625]

Your channel is a goldmine!! I just foumd your channel today and it's been a brilliant birthday present. So many questions I've had answered via funny animation and brilliant outrageous true history!

[@YuuTheShikigami]

So the correct way to say is: "the money is losing it's value" when the products price rise, and not just that "things are getting more expensive".

[@olenickel6013]

The idea that money is worth something because we believe it is isn't -entirely- correct. Value isn't entirely fictive, else we wouldn't have phenomenas like inflation and deflation. This seems obvious with commodity currencies: gold has intrinsic value, because you can use it for something else than being money (use-value) and if you exchange goods for other goods in a market economy, you will want to gain as much value in exchange as you are giving for it else you impoverish yourself (and bankrupt yourself in the long run if you're a company in competition with others). Gold had value, because it was hard to acquire: you had to invest a lot of labor into searching for it and then extracting it and bringing it into circulation. But how does paper money after the removal of the gold standard acquire value? Is it just fictive, a mass hysteria? No, even though it requires a form of common social agreement: we accept money as legal tender, enforced by central authority and because it is in general circulation, the sum of money in circulation has the value of: the sum of goods in circulation. It's not entirely fictive, but it doesn't have some sort of intrinsic value either. It's a "Realfiktion" or a fetish, a material embodiment of a social relationship.

[@pablocassani143]

I recently found this channel. Loving it already!

[@jcb8014]

Brilliantly entertaining and informative, you learn something new everyday

[@blunderbus2695]

0:10 "Latter half of the 20th century" *picture says 19th century*

[@AkaiAzul]

Wait a minute! If the US dollar is the currency everything is based off of, and the US being in so much debt, is money itself worthless?!

[@dragon12234]

Th US national debt means less than people think it does as the US don't actually need to pay it back really, as long as it's economy keeps growing

[@Rocketboy1313]

Money, as this video illustrates, is worth how much people think it is. Like religion.

[@mkvenner2]

You living under a rock?

[@somecuriosities]

That's a big _IF_ if the US has to do that forever.

[@mkvenner2]

Some Curiosities which could be until next Tuesday.

[@bymatthewansley]

Fantastic series!! Very well done

[@rebelkatx17]

Just wanted to say as someone who works in currency exchange I waned to say how useful this has been, especially with the recent developments with the Egyptian pound, so thanks!

[@MrMysticphantom]

Wait the "Next" episode link says March 5 are we gonna get episode VII in march?

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

I assume that is rather a vestige of something long past.

[@justinpurdy3117]

It says November 12th for me

[@MrMysticphantom]

yay thanks ..they most probably fixed it or got programmatically auto fixed or something.. cuz i watched it within the first 10 mins of release

[@anttibjorklund1869]

I get how taking the cash off of the gold standard would seem to make it safer, but wouldn't the underlying problem - the susceptibility of monetary value to the whims of the market - still be there?

[@rustygear447]

+Outer M. Wow, your comment explains a lot. thanks!

[@advaithpillai]

an absolute gem of a series

[@pyrotechnick420]

Thank you for making this series.

[@sf5477]

HaHaHa! The add I saw b4 this episode was about jewelry and they claimed that they believed in the intrinsic value of gold.

[@TehCthulhu]

How could you not bring up the Petrodollar?

[@paulraider2001]

Great Series!! Can't wait for the next one.

[@looksintolasers]

This was great! Been watching Extra Credits for years and somehow missed Extra History...

[@RegsaGC]

"And so finally after 6000 years [ we got a completely and utterly flawless system 50 years ago that is definitely gonna stay forever because it is so smart]" Hm.

[@MichaelRicksAherne]

I think he meant "finally" as in "finally we come to the current system" -- cause this was an explanation of how we got to where we're at now, not a defense of what we have.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Episode 7 : how the current monetary system crumbles after President Trump defaults on US debt

[@WannabeCanadianDev]

No joke, that is the real waiting catastrophe is the US were to ever default.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

Or how all currency collapses after Hillary's No-Fly Zone in Syria causes World War 3 and beggars the entire world. We're kinda fucked either way.

[@sirrobertwalpole913]

or worse, when he starts rounding up and killing millions of innocent people.

[@WannabeCanadianDev]

cheezemonkeyeater Should have FDR not gone to war with Japan?

[@attackcadillac2404]

+Elison Bradley I want aware that Syria ever attacked us?

[@zaraarali7491]

Thanks for such Amazing series ! but Surely there is some more to it

[@sanmarrtin7]

Tremendous work!! Thanks

[@TNinja0]

Thanks Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Hath-Not-Died-For-Thee.Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned. Barebone.