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You see it / every day, / you use it / all the time. /
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But / have you ever wondered, /
what is money? /
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Where did money come from /
and where's it headed? /
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How did humans evolve /
from hunter-gatherers, / to buyers and sellers? /
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Well, / you're about to find out. /
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Let's take a trip / back in time. /
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Hey everyone, / Jacqueline Howard here. /
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It's around 12,000 years ago, /
and / we don't have money / quite yet. /
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The only thing / we do have /
is barter. /
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That is, / if / someone needs an item /
they don't have, /
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they simply exchange / something they do have /
to get it. /
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You trade / something in surplus / for something you need. /
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In other words, / if / you want / the next guy's mastodon meat, /
offer your extra animal furs / in exchange. /
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Since / humans are now farming /
and developing dense communities, /
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we're starting to barter / one common thing. /
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Livestock-- / it's one of the earliest forms / of money, /
along with other agricultural products / such as grains. /
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But / herding cattle across the desert, /
or paying people / in large amount of grain, / is kind of cumbersome, /
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so / let's fast forward / to around 3,000 years ago /
to solve this inconvenience. /
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Early civilizations are starting / to assign symbolic value /
to things like metals and shells /
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and using them / as money. /
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For instance, / folks are using / copper, bronze, silver, and gold coins /
as money /
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in India, China, / and other parts of Asia. /
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Though / no one knows / for certain /
when early coinage first emerged, /
sea shells, / especially cowry shells, / are used as money /
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in various societies, / including some in Asia and Africa. /
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Especially in Africa, /
sometimes blocks of salt / are used as money. /
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And check this out, /
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people in the tiny island of Yap, / out in the Pacific Ocean, /
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have one of the strangest forms of money / of all: /
gigantic limestone disks, / some the size of cars. /
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But / let's move on. /
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I'm taking you / to around 1,200 years ago, /
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to see / how we made the leap /
from using coins, shells, and giant rocks / to paper money. /
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The first known paper money / is now being used / in China. /
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Historian Dr. Robin Yates, /
[[ an expert on east Asian history, ]]
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told me / that paper money is used /
to buy all kinds of different products. /
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Researchers know this / by skimming through ancient texts, /
or by literally digging / at archeological sites / for evidence. /
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But while / paper money is revolutionizing / the way goods change hands, /
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it's not until the Age of Exploration / that credit comes into the picture. /
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Let's keep going to / around 600 years ago. /
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European explorers / are taking to the seas /
in search of riches / and places to colonize. /
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How are they funding / these explorations? /
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Credit. /
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You know, /
it's when / you get something now / but pay for it later. /
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Some historians say / monarchs are funding exploration projects /
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because / they know / they'll get their money back /
when / a colony is founded / or riches are discovered. /
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Credit is facilitating explorations / across the Indian and Atlantic oceans, /
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and financing / trade and shipping networks /
like the Dutch East India Company. /
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And yes, / credit is even funding / the Atlantic slave trade. /
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But / let's skip ahead / to around 200 years ago, /
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when / something else will forever change / how we use money. /
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It's 1816, / and the English are adopting /
what's called the gold standard system. /
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What's that mean? /
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Every note / printed by the government /
represents / a certain amount of gold. /
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So in other words, / paper money is " backed " / by gold. /
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The U.S. is following suit, too, /
but / politicians will decide / to throw out this system, /
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since / it will put a drag / on our economy. /
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Instead of being convertible / into precious metal, /
the U.S. doll / will become fiat money, /
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which means / it's not really backed / by anything. /
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Rather, / our money has value /
because / we think / it does, / and the government says it does. /
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Got that? /
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Let's go back home. /
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Phew, / we're back / in the present day. /
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And today / we have / credit cards, electronic transfers, /
digital currency / like Bitcoin, PayPal, and Apple Pay. /
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These new developments mean /
you don't really need paper cash / anymore / for most transactions. /
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We can move money digitally / between people and businesses /
in an instant. /
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All of this / makes life pretty complicated /
for economists and government officials. /
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I mean, / how is money tracked? /
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How does it move? /
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What's it worth? /
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What does the future hold? /
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This leaves us all to wonder, /
will paper money soon go extinct? /
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Maybe so. /
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This could seem / as outdated as this. /
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But / are you ready / to trade in your Benjamins /
and ditch your wallet? /
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Let me know / your thoughts. /