History of Money

Categorized | Money and Banking, Videos

Posted on 21 January 2010 by admin

“Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.”
— David Ricardo

“The Congress shall have Power…To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.”
— US Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 5

“No State shall…coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debt.”
— US Constitution Article I, Section 10, Clause 1

This short 2 part video gives a very good historical summary of US currency and its slow mutation from a Constitutional form of money which is gold or silver; to a fiat currency system which is simply paper and not backed by anything of real value.

History of Money Part 1

History of Money Part 2

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January 21st, 2010 at 5:12 am
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February 3rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm
[...] If you would like to get started on this subject with a shorter video, we recommend the history of money video. [...]
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As Good as Gold | University of Common Sense Says:
May 1st, 2010 at 1:37 am
[...] History of Money – Video: An interesting and more thorough examination of the history of US money and its departure from gold and silver. “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.” — George Washington “Of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money.” — Daniel Webster “Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.” — David Ricardo “In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. … This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.” — Alan Greenspan “The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” — Vladimir Lenin Learn more about sound money policy: [...]