What Scared Japan From Making Coin Money for 500 Years | History of Japan 88

[@Linfamy]

Money talk incoming. Samurai being *ssholes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5q6p6WHjdirepo Please consider supporting the channel =) 🔸 PATREON (blog, art): www.patreon.com/Linfamy 🔸 MEMBERSHIP: kzbin.infojoin 🔸 MERCH: linfamy.creator-spring.com (shirts, stickers, phone cases, and more!) 🔸 DONATE: www.paypal.me/Linfamy

[@greekyogurt9997]

Hi

[@joshuahuertas7962]

Awsome video! Will share 😎

[@diveshr.960]

Hey Linfamy, please try to ban bots or delete their comments, like the one which is advertising crypto here.

[@Linfamy]

@@diveshr.960 thanks, yeah I've had to do that many times in this video lol

[@Founderschannel123]

@@Linfamy damn those bots really want your bokksu and your coins.

[@hektor6766]

Japanese guy: "What are those?" Chinese guy: "These are coins. We use them when we buy and sell stuff." Japanese guy: "Neat! I'm going back to Japan and start making coins!" (sails away) Chinese guy: "Maybe I should've told him about banking and interest. Oh well, he'll figure it out."

[@JuMiKu]

Another Chinese guy, having overheard part of it: "But you remembered to tell him about the problem of inflation and that this money-stuff is always only really worth what people believe it is worth, right? ...Right?" First Chinese guy: "Suuuure. Yeah. Totally."

[@theloweffortchannel7211]

@@JuMiKu That's why you make coins from valuable metals. Have you heard of a "mercury dime"?. It's probably something that you can only avoid if you stock up on silver like, right now.

[@JuMiKu]

@@theloweffortchannel7211 "Valuable metals" that are usually also only worth what people decide they are worth. Why would a chicken farmer place any worth on silver? He doesn't need silver. He may never know anyone, who needs silver. If you want to go by rarity, you might as well stock up on your childhood drawings, because those are limited and rare. Seriously though, nobody needs coinage made of rare metals, because rarity is pretty arbitrary and useless. If you want to go by "useful" metals. Eh? Define "useful". Useful to whom in what circumstances and when? Paper money is perfectly fine, so long as we believe in who says that this money is worth something. The same thing goes for coinage or even in the olden days rare metals. Think about it: Do you have the tools and know-how to prove somebody's rare metals are what they claim? Does your bartering partner in turn? What do you need silver for? It is just symbolic again. What is important is that the government or whoever holds this trust, knows what they are doing and even more importantly keeps the trust.

[@theloweffortchannel7211]

@@JuMiKu Silver can be used to purify water

[@JuMiKu]

@@theloweffortchannel7211 It should never be used alone and always in conjunction with something like carbon, which is why filters are complex and don't use just silver by itself. You'd be better off stocking up on water purification tablets. Those are ready to use. Or porn... Things that are cheap now, but you think could gain great value and can be used and trusted immediately. Because we have the same problem: Trust. Unless kt is just for personal use, people have to trust your word, that this is silver and that it works the way you say. Regarding that, you can test how great this really works by yourself: Get something silver, get a microscope. Check fecal matter, pond water and so on under the microscope before and then spread them on the silver. Also, spread them on a stone for control. Wait different amounts of time. Check again. This doesn't work nearly as well, as sellers want to make you believe.

[@thenoblepoptart]

Dude your artistry has improved so much over time, this whole channel just keeps getting better and better over time, whereas others become stale.

[@Linfamy]

[@Amira_Phoenix]

@@Linfamy By the way, Linfamy, sir, at the 5:38 of the video, the drawing you show, what does it represent? Looks like blood spilled on the tatami. Anyway, I would like to look up into it.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Artistry? I like the way you think. (Wait a minute. You mean "this" is better?!)

[@ididntknowwhattonamemyself9626]

@@Linfamy (:

[@thebunyip4037]

@@Amira_Phoenix it looks like a maroon furoshiki cloth for carrying thing’s

[@SengokuStudies]

Interestingly, despite the government turning away from minting their own copper coins, the concept was starting to gain favor in general. They ended up importing Chinese copper coins (literally by the boatload) which were more abundant, and more trusted. By the 1300s these Chinese copper coins had become extremely common for use in daily transactions. The "mon" was the basic currency with different coins ranging in different mon values. During the Nanbokucho Period, many military commanders wanted the revenue from the territory they controlled in coin rather than kind (other goods).

[@Linfamy]

True! Shh that's a later vid :p

[@feroxseneca8997]

I gave this a “like” for calling out the theory of a barter economy. That idea comes from Adam Smith, who didn’t have any evidence for one but figured it was so logical that eventually there would be some. There never was.

[@kennethferland5579]

Barter of that kind probably did exist in the past, just not in a settled agrarian society with even modest division of labor, but in pre-argarian nomadic societies it likely did happen when wandering tribes meet each other or congregated in wintering grounds. The exchanges may have been more tribe-2-tribe rather then individual-2-indivdual and would have been driven heavily by decorative and rare items rather then basic commodites because nomadic people could not carry around much bulk. The number one trade would have been in mates as each group tried to avoid inbreeding.

[@Grizabeebles]

Bargaining and barter only makes sense between people who don't trust each other. The invention of money allowed for more one-time transactions and more "equal" exchange - therefore less trust was required between individuals for exchange to take place. The frightening thing is that most people still haven't realized that money is still just a bunch of promises of repayment that we trade amongst ourselves like ration coupons. In other words, money is trade-able debt.

[@mindstalk]

The barter origin of money idea actually goes back to Aristotle, Politics Book 1:9[1]; Adam Smith might have gotten it from him, or via Paulus, a 200s AD Roman jurist.

[@Grizabeebles]

@@mindstalk -- huh. I believe the Romans had coins in 200 A.D. but did the Greeks in Aristotle's time? I actually forgot that stuff being so old people start to think it's been around forever is itself an ancient phenomenon.

[@mindstalk]

@@Grizabeebles Round coins were invented in Lydia [sic, not Libya] in the 600s BC, centuries before Aristotle. *Money*, as a unit of account and medium of exchange, is at least as old as 2000 BC, with the Code of Ur-Nammu defining fines in weights of silver or barley. The Roman Republic got into minting coins by 300 BC.

[@akabluetaiga5670]

My teacher once shown us some coins he and his crew digged out from an archeological expedition. He was given them because "They held no value whatsoever". Guess that's fate, even 1000 years later. I was personally drooling over them, but y'know, one man's stone is another man's gem, as they say.

[@Linfamy]

Nice! I would love to have a coin

[@nunyabiznes33]

Ouch, even as ancient coins they're still worthless?!

[@akabluetaiga5670]

@@nunyabiznes33 It seems so, yep. At least, the mokkan ( wood tablets) would reveal to us some precious information about the lifestyle of these people. Which means some wood tablets hold more value than antique coins. Archeology isn't always what you expect

[@ulutiu]

@@nunyabiznes33 Depends on place and period. For example Roman Empire suffered from inflation in 3rd century and they minted tons of coins which are still found today in large hoards. And as you may predict, they are worth very little. On the other hand, earlier coins especially golden can be worth tens of thousands of $.

[@stefanschleps8758]

@@Linfamy How many would you like? Which country and time period? I have some.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

Your analogies are always amazing. "Copying China'a homework", "Like having a child that looks like your neighbor." 😂😂😂. Thank you for being fun and informative.

[@Mikeztarp]

6:05 This segment reminds me of what happened here in France: in 1960, the old currency, the franc, was replaced. By a totally new currency, worth exactly 100 times more, called... the franc. Right up until 2002 and the euro, people were still talking about old francs vs new francs. Like whenever someone said a big amount, there'd always be one lame jokester to say "you mean old francs, right?" (especially if they were the one who had to pay).

[@justnoob8141]

Hm yes, “Franc” vs “The Franc”, totally different and totally won’t confuse anyone

[@xerox9115]

6:06 The Roman Empire did had the same idea creating a second currency, the "Denario". It was created for the same reason. The Roman coin, the "As" was suffering from high inflation

[@DasFengster]

The denarius already existed during the Roman Republic. You're probably thinking of the antoninianus, which was introduced in the early 3rd century. It contained 1.5x the silver but was valued at 2 denarius. As the empire descended into constant chaos and warfare throughout the 3rd century, it contained less and less silver until it basically became a bronze coin, sometimes silver-washed to give off a shiny appearance. It was finally abandoned altogether in the early 4th century in favor of a new currency system. By the way, the as coexisted with the denarius. One silver denarius was at first worth 10 bronze asses, but was later increased to 16 asses.

[@arx3516]

@@DasFengster now i'm picturing a silver as depicting the face of the current emperor on one side and his ass on the other. And the reason why it was dropped was because often the two sides were identical!

[@gljames24]

Wasn't the Denario just a silver coin from a wealthy Roman General that people really trusted? Then it moved to Spain and later became the word dollar?

[@mindstalk]

@@gljames24 Not at all. 'dollar' comes from the German 'thaler'. Also it's denarius, not denario.

[@m.a.9571]

Glad to see Linfamy is as funny and informative as he was even back 4 years ago.

[@Linfamy]

Wow 4 years ago. It's been a while o.o

[@xostler]

@@Linfamy 2018… dang that flew by quickly

[@shinamonroru]

I love your videos They make history so fun with your illustrations! Sorry for bad English, Japanese is very different and im still trying to figure English out

[@Linfamy]

Thanks! And your English is great :)

[@josephwilson8133]

Jfc. You speak better English than a lot of natives I know. Good job.

[@zakazany1945]

Hi (sorry for my bad english)

[@rztrzt]

There's nothing wrong with your English, my Japanese on the other hand is a disgrace :) If I had to be an ass and nitpick at your English, "I love your videos, they make history so fun with your illustrations! Sorry for my bad English, Japanese is very different and I'm still trying to figure English out."

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Always a good day to see you upload

[@Linfamy]

Always a good day to see you comment

[@AbsolXGuardian]

1:13 Within communities small enough for everyone to know eachother, gift economies were used instead of commodies. Say you're a farmer and you need a new shovel. You go to the blacksmith and ask for one, and he just makes it for you. If he doesn't have any wood, he asks the local woodcutter for some. Once the shovel is done, he gives it to you. A month later during harvest time when he asks for a portion of the harvest to feed his family, you'll give it to him. If you don't, word will quickly spread and no one will make anything for you. Same if when the woodcutter the blacksmith gets his tools from asks for a new axe and the blacksmith says no. It was based on an informal system of how much one participated and how reasonable their requests were. Trade commodities, barter, and/or currency was meant for people whom they couldn't keep in check through small town reputation- rent to landowners, taxes, and payment to traveling merchants. A gift economy kind of exists today in the form of literal gift giving. If someone doesn't give you a birthday gift, it's pretty unlikely you'll give them one yourself. And unless your economic status is mismatched, you'll try to give them a gift of reasonable value.

[@wongkeehan]

Fairly sure that's a credit economy, with tracking via memory.

[@akatsuki6371]

Yeah, it's still the same in small towns in Japan.

[@akatsuki6371]

Probably one of the reasons a lot of Japanese people are hesitant about accepting unexpected gifts. If you receive a gift, there is sometimes an expectation that you'll help out in return.

[@GaiaDblade]

Another historical commodity currency was salt. It became so valuable that when a soldier was good at their job, they were calls 'worth their salt' thus creating the saying.

[@gljames24]

It's also where we get the word salary from.

[@arcatacompany]

Growing up as a hippie type person who believes in that communal bartering, I really appreciate the reality that you spin on bartering that it is not viable for day-to-day solutions

[@shingshongshamalama]

"Do your research first. And then dismiss them." sick burn / 10

[@mistmanjones3555]

Love your economics videos! 😀 Since you uploaded two videos about the coin crisis in Japan I would like to do a thought experiment with you. What if YOU were put in charge of creating a coinage system in Nara Japan and the shogun gave you unlimited resources and power? What would you do in order to make the coin system work?

[@Linfamy]

lol, no idea. Seems like the problems they had was not with coinage system, but with external problems. The government put too many coins into circulation (because it was profitable), the copper shortage, the big smallpox epidemic..

[@edersonnico]

Demand taxes being paid in the coin. So, the citizens would have an incentive to adquire coins. Should also produce them in some very elaborate design to make it harder to counterfeit. I'd say the hyperinflation problem was the governmeny fault too, the coins were worth it way more than the materials needed to produce them and as such they saw it as a simple solution to their financial problems, just printing money.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

Any metal coin system will work if the government accepts that the value of the coin be determined by it's metal content only, and not by decree. This means that even the cost of minting the coins (over and above the cost of the actual metal) must be born by the government. It also means that minting coin-of-the-realm would cost the government money rather than be a source of profit. However, it would still be worth doing due to the general economic benefits. Basing the coins' value only on the innate metal content eliminates most counterfeiting, and using a metal that's difficult to counterfeit (such as pure copper or a high-quality bronze alloy) acts as an effective proof of authenticity. I live in South Africa, and have purchased a few gold Krugerrand's in my time. The reason these gold coins are so sought after is that they are sold for only a few percent more than the innate value of the gold they contain. Yes, this means that the cost of minting the coin is actually carried by the South African government, and so a loss is made on each coin minted. But boy do they make for a sound money!

[@alsatusmd1A13]

1. Financially, metals are commodities. 2. With all the times you say “cock” in this video, I think it is apropos to mention that the Chinese word for copper sounded close to “dong” when Japan copied the Chinese characters.

[@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759]

@@XCodes And right now it costs 2.06 cents to make a penny. We might be doing something wrong by even still having that thing around.

[@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759]

@@XCodes In 2020, taxpayers lost 85.4 million off of the production of pennies alone. Also, somebody in government must agree with me on account of the fact that all minting of new pennies is set to cease by 4/1/23.

[@rashidisw]

@Rusty00 Yep that pronunciation also affected how money are called in south east asia region. In malaysia money was called "wang" and in indonesia called "uang"

[@WlatPziupp]

@@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759 How can it be wrong if it funnels public money into private hands for the sole benefit or copper companies? Personally I'd consider it a massive win if I, through taxes paid to the government, paid a company to pay/persuade the government that I should keep being forced to pay the company, that's value creation right there!

[@WlatPziupp]

@@XCodes It isn't, it has negative value to everyone except the people who own the materials used to make it. They take that profit from selling materials to make coins with a negative value, and they invest it into lobbying the government to continue forcing tax payers to pay the companies that own the materials so coins with negative value will still be produced. Removing it has been suggested many many times by people who know what they're talking about for extremely obvious reasons, and lobbying efforts from those companies stop it every time. Smaller denominations are taken out of circulation all the time, and it has happened fairly frequently for a very long time, this is the longest the US has ever gone without removing the lowest value piece of currency. You're also completely ignoring the cost of transporting all these worse than worthless coins around, which makes them even worse than worse than worthless. All done to funnel public money into private hands, to turn taxes into profit for people making things worse on purpose so they can keep latching firmly onto the tax payer teat. What's that? You want public money to fund public goods like schools and hospitals and repairing the "It's absolutely vital to replace me in 1987" bridge? Well too bad, you have to line the pockets of worthless people making worse than worthless coins, or you'll owe them more money and get beaten or shot if you keep not paying. Maybe you'll be sold into slavery at a place where tax payer money funds private profit and also they get to keep you as a slave to make products that they sell for more profit. Oh and the conditions are absolutely inhumane, being proven innocent is unlikely to get you free, every cost is cut so the owners can keep more of the public money as private profit, and they spend loads of that money lobbying the government to make sentences as long as possible so they can keep their slaves for longer and so tax payers have to pay the owners as much as possible. If you're not legally considered a slave, which is very much an option, everyone will have to pay the people who aren't technically legally your owners many fire stations and miles of renewed infrastructure worth of money to keep you there for their private gains. In return for your forced labor you'll receive pennies

[@cloud4565]

Minting butloads of money? Hold on I think I've seen this one before

[@nunyabiznes33]

Money printer go brrrrrr!

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

Abe's folly has a long history.

[@hektor6766]

@@naamadossantossilva4736 Abenomics is what you get when you try to make Reaganomics work.

[@amys.3529]

4:45 Most unexpected line to ever come out of your mouth...yet. 😆 🤣 😂 Great video. 👍

[@Linfamy]

lmao 😂

[@fritzfxx]

I'm so glad you included D2 (and PoE). D2 trading taught me the value of currency (runes) as a kid. I'm in my 30s and i literally still use those experiences/concepts to understand the economy. I'm a simple creature. P.s. PD2. Play it.

[@sagacious03]

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@reubeng2110]

always found it cool to find a coin with a hole in the center from some European country i think Denmark maybe and was intrigued why but it makes so much sense so you can tie them into a bundle.

[@holben27]

Also uses less material

[@J_Gamble]

A Linfamy day is a good day 🌻

[@Linfamy]

[@NicknameIsGarfield]

2:10 just the mention of "The Heian period" gave me flashbacks of well, you know.

[@bushy9780]

"A dollar is worth more than the paper it's printed on" *US Money Printers go brrrrrrr*

[@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759]

The Dollar is made of 3/4 cotton and 1/4 linen, so paper need not apply.

[@delfinenteddyson9865]

@@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759 what do you call it then?

[@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759]

@@delfinenteddyson9865 It is called rag.

[@delfinenteddyson9865]

@@bigfoottroisiemepartielave1759 fair enough

[@sirguy6678]

Great video! It’s good to know that history never repeats itself

[@OfficialKatyMikayla]

I swear, your humor is the best part of your videos 😂

[@iglybo]

Very interesting, great video!

[@Amira_Phoenix]

If I remember correctly, at 1500s the new attempt at currency in Japan gave birth to a differently shaped coin, much like an oblong breakfast biscuit. Let me know if I'm wrong.

[@Linfamy]

That's a koban, used in the Edo Period. Before that...the 1500s was a time of war, central government was powerless. Some daimyo's minted their own coins, like the Takeda clan. When Hideyoshi came to power, he created a central currency system that was a predecessor to the Tokugawa currency system. He created the first oban, which was a big koban.

[@Amira_Phoenix]

@@Linfamy thank you 👍

[@shemuelgallardovivarsjourn8814]

Can you create a video 1.) why and how did the Meiji Emperor paid all of Korean empire’s debt? Reference: Debt succession by side quest 2.) what happens to Imperial House of Japan’s former Crownlands/ancestral lands after world war 2

[@telinhajp]

Hi Linfamy! Hugs from Tokyo! 🤗

[@Linfamy]

Cheers from USA :)

[@annikahoffmann5220]

Nice Video for breakfast. It reminds me of some Terry Pratchet novels I read. I love to learn more in between Coffee and makeing Candels.

[@SilverWatcher.]

I'm 25% Japanese my gmas 💯 Japanese she was born in 1933 her family owned a local corner mart. in ww2 she said everyone was so poor they eventually ended up trading booze cigarettes and food for clothes. 🥺 stay blessed people

[@thiagozequim]

OMG, this video was so good

[@Linfamy]

Glad you like :)

[@quantafreeze]

Very cool! Thank you!

[@adrianvergot]

... and call me popcorn!!!!! Educational entertainment at its finest!

[@founoe]

What?! A fiat currency imploding, partly because the people in charge tried to save it by printing more currency? Surely a one time thing now that we've learned from our mistakes.

[@sweetpeasmom3580]

Okay Popcorn. Love your videos btw ☺️

[@MrKIMBO345]

I could believe that Ancient Japanese had problem with the fiat economy like the now worlds' economy.

[@ferretyluv]

Nook tickets quickly overtook bells as the primary currency of Animal Crossing, so I completely understand commodity economy. Same with wood.

[@edi9892]

A few things about modern financial politics many people don't seem to be aware of: 1) Governments can only pay with tax money or inflation. 2) FIAT currency is nothing other than trading IOUs! Originally coins used to be silver (in Europe up to the 1960s) and banknotes could be exchanged for a predetermined ammount of gold. Thus the notes were an IOU gold, which could be traded. Now, you trade an IOU that is essentially worthless! -or just worth as much as the government can make you believe it's worth... 3) technically governments cannot go bankrupt as they can print their own money, but what actually determins their credit worthiness is their ability to squeeze out money of its citizens in the future and their military might (try selling oil in anything other than USD, and your country will be _liberated_ of you) 4) inflation depends not just on the ammount of cash, but its turnover rate and assumed worth. For instance, if I had access to the money printer and made more cash off the books, it would cause no inflation as long as people don't notice that more money is in the system. Similarly, a country can suffer simulationsly of inflation and deflation in different markets. For instance, living costs can become absurdly high, while at the same time banks and companies lack liquidty...

[@Barbs_Collectibles]

You are so funny. I love this channel ❤️

[@alannasarafat9938]

Like having kids that look like your neighbor that make me laugh maniacally in train

[@theKobus]

Side note, one reason you could use clothing for trade is that traditional Japanese clothing isn’t closely cut to size

[@yuqing2006]

Graphic means nothing if it's not delivered by a good narrator. This guy is SO FUNNY 😁

[@manticore2804]

what if they were like "ok, this coin is worth one pound of rice, this coin is worth ten pounds of rice, so on so forth. boom, nobody gets inflated

[@GhazPlays]

Only until something (drought, famine, war, vermin, etc.) effects the supply of rice.

[@paulrozier1325]

You’d have to do that fairly often to respond to supply/demand of the commodity you were linking to. If your currency is constantly being revalued in favor of a commodity, it’s simpler to just trade the commodity.

[@manticore2804]

@@paulrozier1325 yes but you get the bonus of unlimited money

[@madmax43v3r]

'ok, this coin is worth one pound of rice" -> as soon as the rice becomes more valuable as the coin (ie. people have excess coins wondering what to do with them) people will convert their coins to rice until there is no rice left and the coin is worthless.

[@madmax43v3r]

​@Savvy They would hold onto them for sure, and fight each other on who gets to buy the first rice that's available to buy. Eventually you need full communism to make your plans of fixing prices work.

[@nyxsus12]

I'd say there is a 3rd type of currency: representative currency. That would be closer to how 1 dollar was worth some amount of gold. Its similar to fiat currency but it can be traded in to procure a set amount of a commodity

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

Great video, Popcorn!

[@Linfamy]

🙂🍿

[@talorlor]

something was great about your illustrations this time - expressive and funny.

[@jjlpinct]

As a child in elementary school I was shown the "I'm just a bill" cartoon. this should the next one after that

[@CBruceNL]

This is God tier history AND humor

[@cmarano]

Thank you for explaining the first NFTs. I'm waiting for rice-based token that's on a block chain.

[@kleuafflatus]

The coins in Japanese yen still have the highest cost/value contrast (citation needed). A 100 yen coin is not much different in size to a US quarter, while being almost 3 to 4 times in value depends on the exchange rate. The 500 yen as far as I know is the second most valuable circulating coin, just behind 5 Swiss franc while being much much smaller and lighter. (citation needed). Idk exactly what is the reason for this, but it might have to do with the Japanese miracle in the 50s all the way to the 80s when jpy went from trash to gold in such a short time...? (Citation needed)

[@TealCheetah]

This is one of the few channels I feel that ghosts are genuinely welcome.

[@Linfamy]

Ah, are you a ghost?

[@ThatSlowTypingGuy]

"Like with anything, do your research first on the coins you're interested in... and then dismiss them." Okay I lost it.

[@PouresMaggie]

So essentially, they practiced the Legend of Zelda sidequests from OOC and MM for the big goron sword and great fairy's sword before they started using coins. Interesting.

[@simoanblarke]

love the SoJ reference! (although i thought that was only really a thing on non-ladder, and ladder was still mainly runes driven?)

[@Linfamy]

lol ah ok, it's been a while since I've played diablo 2 :)

[@simoanblarke]

may depend on the realm i guess! and i havent played in like 10 years myself. but still - appreciate the memories brought back by that half a second segment :)

[@joshuasteele3520]

I'm just amazed at the idea that you could use rice as a currency; the idea that you could literally grow money

[@jbird3214]

You may of missed some of this........ Money does not exist :/ You grow rice, rice is a commodity. Rice is valuable. Money does not exist :/ The money is a way of making value out of no effort. We grow the rice, we are hungry. A group of people thought one day, let these farmers make our food. We will take it. This led to war. War led to tragedy. Tragedy to fairness and humility. Less tragedy led to greed. Greed led to a balancing of the books. Now they who do little work, but collect big rewards are feeling they are worth more than the rice growers...... Tale as old as time (y) What I think is amazing........ Is the people who first took from the other group. Were they good or evil or simply just curious human beings looking for something new or better? Was the industrial or the agricultural revolution the downfall of our race......or the invention of fire? So many moments in history I would love to be a fly on the wall ;)

[@user-bh8id7of7n]

As someone who buys and sells stuff if you have quality product for a good price someone will always be there to buy it from you.

[@tredegar4163]

The copper coins were actually a fiat currency, the declared value was much higher than the metal content of the coins, much like the clad coins we have today (except for pennies and nickel now). If they used silver or gold that would be a commodity currency, the value would be derived from the underlying metal. This is a classic example of the eventual end of all fiat currencies.

[@insertnamehere001]

But we're in a fiat currency right now and have been for a very long time.

[@tredegar4163]

@@insertnamehere001 Since 1971 when Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold, so really only about 50 years. However you can also argue it was when the “petro-dollar” was decoupled from oil during the 08 recession. The 30 trillion in government debt has to be deleveraged, either though crippling austerity or high to hyper inflation. All governments choose inflation.

[@insertnamehere001]

@@tredegar4163 not all of humanity lives in the USA.

[@tredegar4163]

@@insertnamehere001 No they don’t, but the Bretton woods agreement pegged the dollar to gold and everyone else held dollars, because it was “as good as gold.” When the US decoupled from gold they forced the rest of the world into being fiat currencies as well. The world still held onto dollars because the US had a deal with OPEC to only deal in oil in dollars. If you wanted oil you had to have dollars. The US allowed the price of oil to run up back in 08 so we could print more dollars. We’re all in this boat together

[@chad_bro_chill]

@@insertnamehere001 Who are you responding to then with "have been for a very long time"? He was clearly talking about the US from the get-go, and all fiat currencies will inevitably have the same problem. Plus, not all of humanity uses fiat currency to begin with.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

No amount of buddhist or filial piety, or fear of god, has ever stopped those in power from cranking those money machines to brrr

[@EtreTocsin]

Moral of the story- eff elites, eff fiat currency buy land and grow your own rice…okay…got it!

[@johnrockwell5834]

Rice is always a good fallback currency.

[@Linfamy]

My rent is due? One sec. Here's a bowl of chicken fried rice.

[@kenyastewart22]

Damn hoarding in Japan dates back to Heian period. Rich history.

[@Lucious410]

Nice

[@Linfamy]

No u

[@Lucious410]

@@Linfamy thanks for making me laugh after a crappy day at work. I really appreciate what you do. Thank you 😊

[@meetaverma8372]

the value of the Fiat currency is based on gold, we literally just learnt this today in class

[@hektor6766]

A commodity-based currency is called a representative currency. Fiat currency (a fiat is a decree, from Lat "Let it be done.") is not represented by gold, silver, oil, rice, or any commodity. It is only backed by the market's faith and credit in the nation's government.

[@meetaverma8372]

@@hektor6766 well my teacher said, value money is based on the value of gold

[@brettmcclain9289]

Commodities money does arise from barter naturally. It is just that the items that people find the easiest to barter with do naturally transition into commodity money. Ludwig Von Mises did work on the origin of commodity money and it is still accepted by most economists today.

[@alex_zetsu]

Their comically bad attempt at minting coins and debasing them reminds me of how later the Tokugawa would try to declare gold to be worth 10 times as much as silver.

[@stevenedmund5680]

Japanese swords holds value and continues to go up ....I buy them over bit coin any day .... precious metals will always be where the money/value is....always has been ....always will be in the material world......break into the 80's Madonna song ? .... Material !!!!

[@Shadow_Hawk_Streaming]

Precious metal coins aren't strictly a fiat so long as the metal value is comparable to the face value, for instance literally coins listing their precious metal weight and basing value off of the metal value is arguably similar to using a commodity currency

[@Infinitebrandon]

I'll send some ghosts your way lol. Actually I heard we have some friendly ghosts but I think they need bokksu lol

[@Linfamy]

Send them some bokksu :p

[@Infinitebrandon]

@@Linfamy on it doggon it, then these hungry throat ghosts will leave me alone hopefully lol

[@littlsuprstr]

I ordered pandan leaf tea because of you. I will let you know my impressions.

[@Linfamy]

Enjoy! :D

[@The-Singularity-X01]

Technically FIAT currency was once 'backed' by the Gold Standard. Which for the average joe was; Walk into a bank with a dollar, and you can exchange that single dollar for a dollar's worth in gold or silver.

[@michaelweiss5320]

You Really like butter. Second video you've brought that up. 🤣

[@siyacer]

Still more effective than the federal reserve

[@briandinh9169]

The fed is just the worst among the many, many, many ills that Wilson left behind for America

[@doctorpicardnononono7469]

1:56 75% cotton and 25%, linnen me thinks.

[@sheenawarecki92]

"Because the US government says so God damn it" idk why that made me laugh so hard but it's also just sums so many things up so well 😂 also the Japanese from Chinese coins are "change up my homework so it doesn't look the same" energy

[@Obsessive_Artist]

Someone please send this video to the current us government. They can’t grasp theese principles and are going to get us all into the poor house. We should start trading rice and silk and stuff but people won’t trade them the matrix is too strong and the symbol is more real than real valuables.

[@Linfamy]

Hi, I'd like to buy this PS5. Here's a bowl of chicken fried rice.

[@siyacer]

You can still barter with your neighbors

[@Obsessive_Artist]

@@Linfamy 🤣😂🤣 We sell chicken fried rice. 😆 We trade something of value for fiat money with no values. The matrix has me also!!!🤨🤣

[@Obsessive_Artist]

@@siyacer bartering doesn’t exist. Didn’t ypu watch the video.

[@siyacer]

@@Obsessive_Artist the video isn't gospel, my guy, it's half entertainment and half informational. bartering sure as hell is a thing, we have a concept of it for a reason

[@HawkBreland]

long time watcher, rarely comment cuz idk help. good stuff as always! sincere question: are you a bowling pin or some kind of shaft-like object to be used for shaft-like object purposes?

[@Linfamy]

That's for you to decide.

[@HawkBreland]

@@Linfamy thanks man.

[@HawkBreland]

@@Linfamy btw I'm deciding bowling pin because thats hilarious to me for no good reason

[@Linfamy]

Lmao sounds good :p

[@darkangel67]

1:14 yeah this is also the same with the game im playing right now..path of exile 1:15 (OoO)*surprised pikachu face

[@mrosengren4130]

Well, we will be seeing this again with the USD. Just going to say, that it seems to me that commodity currencies seem to be more stable over a long period than fait currency. That, and fait needs to be backed by something. First gold, now oil... and good to see that there were examples to look at in the past :)

[@hektor6766]

Oil is a vital commodity, but not a monetary standard. Fiat currency is based on "the full faith and credit" of the nation-state. That's why, when a resolution to raise the debt limit (the country's willingness to repay its debts rather than hoard its production revenues) comes up in Congress, people start talking about the country's Standard & Poor's rating in anxious tones.

[@robinthrush9672]

The simplified barter economy example seems to ignore merchants. Merchants don't "need" the rice, but they would be willing to trade the axe for the rice (at profit) in order to trade the rice for another commodity (at profit).

[@ruprecht8520]

Laughed out loud at the copying Chinese homework line. Laughter and learning? Slam that like button!

[@skipperson4077]

the hole in the coin is such genius, my favorite coin remains the Japanese gold-ish 5-yen piece (go-en) which has such a hole. Myself and everyone I know has a big pile of pocket change, a hole saves metal while allowing coins to be bundled via chains or threads...

[@gorilladisco9108]

mmmm ... donut ...

[@einhalbesbrot]

Denmarks crona has that feature aswell. Alway liked that

[@loganwebb9559]

Number 42 let's go!!

[@herman1francis]

Once you invest in something it's value will inmediately go down. The truth has been spoken

[@stefanschleps8758]

Thank you. For the history lesson you get a thumbs up. Because it's about coins, coins that I collect, you get a sub. Comedic timing is the art, within the art, that brings to life the form of the artist. I don't know if the U.S. dollar is really useless. Because you can roll a joint with a dollar bill, and that's a religious ritual for some people. You know, like the bro who loses his college fund chasing Phish cover bands? Peace Yo.

[@quijybojanklebits8750]

Actually the US dollar is backed by international oil trade so though its fiat its in a grey area

[@joriankell1983]

Is that why they keep trying to nationalize the oil industry?

[@quijybojanklebits8750]

@@joriankell1983 not that's for oil independence and wouldn't hurt the petro dollar.

[@johnkronz7562]

Even commodity currency wasn’t largely practiced in rural areas except as trade with outsiders. Locals largely practiced informal credit systems.

[@MeloraCarabas]

Cool now I finally know what FIAT is. I've heard and read hundreds of definitions before and those only confused me.

[@pedrojorge4684]

It could have polished a bit more the issue that fiat currency has literally almost no value. The value it has is to be useful for exchanging products, but if it is managed by someone who prints several copies of it (inflation) then soon it starts to lose part of its function because printing money does not increase the amount of products available, so it just makes the money worth less (which gives the impression that the products are more expensive, but in reality the products are priced the same, it is the currency that is worth less and less).

[@Phoenix-ik7bm]

Interestingly before even commodity currencies and even existing along side them most societies used a form of credit. As societies got more complicated people started using tally sticks which where two sticks that had identical notches in them to keep track of how much you owed a person the stick that the person held that was owed was called a share and the person a shareholder.

[@Reddotzebra]

The paper it's printed on today is generally not paper at all, but closer to cloth in some cases, or woven plastic in the really fancy places.

[@dj1NM3]

I guess that's why most historic/ancient coinage systems used precious metals to make the coins from, so they were a comodity in of themselves, rather than fiat currency as such.

[@WildBillCox13]

"Like having a son . . ." Geeze. Had to pause to laugh at that one.

[@WildBillCox13]

"Once you invest in something . . ." You are old beyond your years, Lin.

[@ridleyroid9060]

@4:28 what is the edict called? Google didn't help. Information like that can be really helpful if someone wants to further study stuff like this.

[@chesvvick]

Haha, coin maker goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[@skydivingcomrade1648]

Barter system has always existed but it's always limited in scope and abilities.

[@kaniq6120]

The barter system is a huge part of my culture always has been however we didn't barter things with an understandment of value in the same way other people do or go looking for specific things. Our tribes are nomadic so there would be certain points where we knew we would meet up with other tribes and during these meeting points we would hold festivals and dances and we would also barter with that tribe for things that they had however it wasn't like oh I need a knive so I'll trade you 7 necklaces in fact our bartering system is pretty much food based for example my tribe he Unangan live on the coastal Arctic Islands so we have huge exposure to seagull eggs and sea fish and even octopus and sea urchin as well as seaweed but my cousin's tribe the Yupik lived on the mainland very far inland near the mountains so they didn't have as much access to those type of things instead they had a lot of mushrooms and herbal plants and honey so we would give them a certain set amount of seaweed like 3 pounds and they would give us a set amount tea or dried mushrooms that we all agreed to. Also we didn't have a hierarchy like Japan or most other countries that I can think of we believed that all people were equal essentially so we didn't have rich people or poor people or middle class people it was believed that if one person in the village was starving then everyone would have to pitch in to help that person so if we ever encountered any person or peoples that needed food or something we specifically had but didn't have anything to trade that we really needed or wanted we just give it to them no questions asked.

[@Jmoneysmoothboy]

Debt was the first currency. Even if you didn't have something to barter debt was accepted as payment meaning a barter system never existed because the fundamental currency was debt.

[@kaniq6120]

@@Jmoneysmoothboy I suppose that's one way to look at it and I'm not sure if I explained it well we do have that we just don't really freak out about it as much as other people? We believed that thankfulness or showing honor was in fact a form of payment we also believed that philosophy was a form of payment as well since we believed that intangible things had the same value as something tangible. Like you were in debt to somebody but you didn't have to pay it back with something physical you could show an action and the debt would be repaid usually unless there was a dispute in that case you would go to the council of Wise women and they would talk over the information that they had received from both sides and decide on a verdict of who had to pay what and how much. Typically most of the things that we bartered were small like I'll trade you a can of sea oil for a thing of dried meat or please can I have a thing of seal oil I promise I am thankful and I will make sure to show a action of humility in front of the village and that in itself was considered payment however when it came to bigger things like buying a boat it was considered rude or impolite to try and pay such a big purchase back with something like an act of humility so the intangible item had to be something far greater than that or better yet another tangible item or no sale. A missionary while visiting one of my local Islands in the 1700s observative situation where two different tribes were trying to buy kayaks from one and the other didn't have anything so they talked about what would be an item of equal value and the missionary noted that since the Inuit had no money chances were they weren't going to be able to buy anything but he was surprised. An old man came out and he told three great Legends of his local tribe to the other tribe these Legends and their information were considered so valuable that it was worth one kayak even though it was not a tangible item the debt was considered paid by something of intellectual and religious value. It would also have to depend on what exactly the item was typically we didn't care that much about that when it came to food cuz people need to eat and again we didn't believe that we necessarily owned the food however something that was made by human hands was considered belonging to the human that created it and if they perceived a debt then that debt would have to be honored if you wish to take that item in which case how exactly the debt could be repaid was up to the individual selling the item and if you could not pay their price you did not obtain ownership of the item. I'm sorry if my comments are confusing I was kind of trying to explain that while we do have debt it isn't as strict as here we're going to take all of your physical things that are equal to this item since we didn't measure that the same way.

[@skydivingcomrade1648]

@@Jmoneysmoothboy What evidence do you have to support that?

[@robertjarman3703]

@@skydivingcomrade1648 I suspect that he meant the theory proposed by David Graber´s Debt the First 5000 Years.

[@skipperson4077]

interesting video with sarcasm set to 11! all of this makes me think what did the Japanese use to buy things from China? I've read that for hundreds of years Japan imported things from China yet Japanese coins would only be worth their copper value, and things like rice, silk, and, well, china would be cheaper in China after transit costs.

[@mindstalk]

IIRC Charles Mann's _1493_, by Ming times Japanese silver was in demand, due to Ming monetary policy failures.