History of Money

This week, I will cover something that most of us take for granted. Money is defined as something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment. It usually comes in the form of metal coins or a denomination of paper (fiat) money. In ancient times, it took many other forms as well, such as the American Indians using wampum. There are also examples of West Africans trading in decorative metallic objects called Manillas and the Fijians' economy that is based on whales teeth. As long as everyone can agree on a value, this is a sensible thing for a community to do.

Bartering has been around since the beginning of time where you trade one article to someone else for another article. But what happens when they don't have what you want and vice versa. Money solves this problem. Real value with each exchange, and everyone gaining from the convenience.

The problem that has always existed with money is who creates it. Governments have that responsibility to prevent abuse, unfortunately they themselves get taken in by abusers and manipulators. President James Madison said, "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."

Even back to biblical times, Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Matthew 21:12-13 (KJV)

The Bible does not explain this in more detail, but I found one source that did. Here is the excerpt.
Jesus was so upset by the sight of the money changers in the temple, he waded in and started to tip over the tables and drive them out with a whip, this being the one and only time we ever hear of him using force during his entire ministry.

So what caused the ultimate pacifist to become so aggressive?

For a long time the Jews had been called upon to pay their temple tax with a special coin called the half shekel. It was a measured half ounce of pure silver with no image of a pagan emperor on it.

It was to them the only coin acceptable to God.

But because there was only a limited number of these coins in circulation, the money changers were in a buyers market and like with anything else in short supply, they were able to raise the price to what the market would bear.

They made huge profits with their monopoly on these coins and turned this time of devotion into a mockery for profit. Jesus saw this as stealing from the people and proclaimed the whole setup to be. "A den of thieves".

Once money is accepted as a form of exchange, those who produce, loan out and manipulate the quantity of money are obviously in a very strong position. They are the "Money Changers".

The problem here is usury. Usury is the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates. Interest should not be charged by the people who create money, otherwise they have almost supreme power over everything. Interest should be charged if the other party is putting up some form of collateral in exchange for the money.

This week, I will explore this further. Stay tuned ...

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com