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  • 1,2,3, go!

  • Don't rush me!

  • Philip, I promise I'll catch you.

  • I know, but how do I know?

  • I'm your wife.

  • Don't you trust me?

  • Of course!

  • Then go for it!

  • Okay, okay!

  • Here we go

  • Ah, I can't!

  • Oh, forget it.

  • No, no. I can do this.

  • 1...2...3…

  • Aaaah!

  • Trust is hard.

  • Counting on something you can't see or touch to be there for you when you need it can be

  • scary.

  • But whether we like it or not, you and everyone you know plays a global game of trust every

  • day.

  • It's called MONEY.

  • Money is imaginary.

  • This bill can't be used as food or clothing or shelter.

  • And yet it has value because we've all agreed to pretend that it does.

  • The employee who accepts a paycheck for their hours of work, the shopper who puts a new

  • pair of shoes on their credit card--even the bankrobber risking his life for a bagful of

  • benjamins--they're all putting their faith in a collective fantasy that only works because

  • everyone else believes in it too.

  • The earliest types of currency were things that had practical value, like food or livestock

  • or furs.

  • These commodity monies didn't require much trust.

  • A toolmaker is willing to accept a bag of barley as payment, because even if he has

  • more than he needs, he can be pretty sure that someone else will want it.

  • Because, you know, you can eat it!

  • But commodity money isn't very convenient.

  • Try schlepping forty bags of barley across town just to pay your rent.

  • And if your landlord doesn't spend it right away, it could mold or get eaten by rats.

  • And if he wants to buy a tool from you, he has to carry the sacks all the way back to

  • your house.

  • At some point, someone realized that life would be so much easier if instead of actually

  • carrying sacks of barley back and forth, we could just agree to pretend to carry sacks

  • of barley back and forth.

  • We'd just need some way to keep track of it all.

  • This 5,000 year old Sumerian clay tablet is one of the oldest examples of writing ever

  • found.

  • It says: “29,086 measures of barley, 37 months.”

  • Writing wasn't invented for royal decrees or epic poems... it was invented to keep track

  • of imaginary sacks of barley--in other words, credits and debits.

  • So when St. Paul wrote thatlove of money is the root of all evil,” he may have had

  • a point, but he couldn't have written it down it if it weren't for money.

  • Once humans were willing to think about value symbolically, it wasn't long before we started

  • using other materials as currency.

  • But of all the elements on the periodic scale, which one should we use?

  • Well, first, it should be a solid.

  • And it can't be toxic, obviously.

  • It can't be reactive.

  • Or radioactive.

  • It should be easy to extract and smelt.

  • Rare enough to be valuable, but common enough to be practical.

  • It shouldn't corrode, rust or degrade.

  • But it should be soft enough to cut and shape.

  • Andit should be pretty.

  • That really only leaves a few good options, and the best fit is GOLD.

  • We're used to thinking of gold as inherently precious, but the main reason we use it as

  • a currency isbecause it's great at being a currency.

  • Physically, it's not much more useful than a paper bill.

  • Maybe less.

  • At least you can burn paper for warmth.

  • So that paranoid survivalist burying bullion in his backyard is still playing the trust

  • game.

  • He's trusting that even after the apocalypse, everyone will agree to pretend that his gold

  • is valuable.

  • The next big financial innovation came around 640 BCE in what is now Turkey, when someone

  • had the bright idea to pre-weigh lumps of gold and stamp them with the royal seal, and

  • KA-CHING! the first coins were born.

  • That stamp is the king's personal guarantee of the coin's worth.

  • No need to weigh it or test its purity--if you trust the king, you can trust this coin.

  • Counterfeiting is essentially royal impersonation--a serious offense--and still known today as

  • a lese-majeste crime.

  • Hm.

  • Maybe that's why the organization that investigates counterfeiting in America is the same one

  • that protects the president from attacks: the Secret Service.

  • Coins were so convenient that they quickly spread all over the world, and almost every

  • incarnation had some sort of symbol of trusted authority on it.

  • If you were lucky enough to have a lot of these coins, you'd

  • need somewhere safe to store them, so BANKS were founded where you could exchange your

  • gold coins for a slip of paper called a “promissory note”: a “promisethat the bearer could

  • come back for their coins whenever they wanted.

  • But a funny thing happened: these notes were so light and convenient that people actually

  • preferred them as currency, and VOILA: Paper money.

  • Governments eventually took over the role of printing banknotes, and covered them with

  • all types of assurances that this is more than just a flat rectangle of cotton and linen.

  • We especially love to put images of famous people on our bills--not just to honor the

  • people, but to use their stature and respect to reinforce trust in the currency.

  • I mean, look at ol' George there.

  • Doesn't he seem so TRUSTWORTHY?

  • This money is REAL.

  • I cannot tell a lie.”

  • So when you deposit your paycheck in the bank, you're taking it on faith that you'll

  • be able to withdraw it later as cash, which is a promise that can be redeemed for gold,

  • which you're hoping other people will exchange for food and shelter and all the other stuff

  • we need to live.

  • Wow, that's some Inception levels of trust going on there.

  • Kinda scary when you think about it.

  • Sure, but the fact that money is imaginary does give you a lot more power in your relationship

  • with it.

  • How you think about money affects its very nature.

  • In a future episode, we'll look at how this global trust experiment has moved beyond the

  • physical realm into the invisible world of cyberspace.

  • How can trust possibly survive when the majority of the world's wealth exists only in the

  • minds of computers?

  • We trust you'll keep watching.

  • Thank you to Curiosity Stream for supporting PBS Digital Studios.

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  • and non-fiction title from a variety of film-makers. Including Curiosity Stream Originals!

  • For example, you can watch "The Ascent of Money" to learn more about the history of finance.

  • You can learn more at curiositystream.com/twocents

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