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> state controlled money is something recent too, it used to be that multiple sources minted coins I don't think you're considering a long enough time scale, t
by gooseus 7y ago
> state controlled money is something recent too, it used to be that multiple sources minted coins
I don't think you're considering a long enough time scale, the minting of coins with the likeness of rulers and symbols of the power of the state is as old as the concept of currency and rulers.
There have been instances where companies printed their own script and new non-authoritarian nations might struggle for a bit early on with competing banks, but it's always resolved and power is vested in the central authority.
The role of currency from the point of view of the central authority is more than just economic - it's symbolic, it's propaganda, it's confidence in that government expressed by every citizen through the very act of accepting their currency as valuable.
- buboard 7y agoYeap what has changed is the scale. Never before have states exerted so strict monetary control in such vast areas. For medieval kings it was just impossible to prevent the use of other people's coins.
- codyb 7y agoI’m not sure why anyone would really want to go back to a fractured system (inherently unstable, and very dominant in the early years in America) unless they live in an already unstable system. Universality of your currency is kind of the best selling point isn’t it?
- buboard 7y agoIs it? i dont know. My understanding is that dominant coins exist to subsidize dominant armies, which then protect the dominant coin in a virtuous/vicious cycle. Also, barter worked very well since forever, in which every product is a different "coin", it just doesnt scale physically, while digital currencies do.