[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 @ 10:40 +0100, Mike Meredith said:

> On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:24:45 -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > Also, until Rome actually got currency flowing well enough, there
> > wasn't a lot of benefit to it anyway.  Local currencies were useless
> > unless they were pure metals, and even then it could be hard to trade
> > with across distances and/or with people who didn't know it.  Barter
> > just worked better.
> 
> Pretty much all early currencies were precious metal based precisely
> because they could be used in remote places (and times considering
> hording was common).

At least until the 300s, when Rome started fiat money issues, which is
one reason they went under.  Roman soldiers found out their pay was
worthless, so they started robbing localities to survive.  Merchants
found they couldn't trade with the "outside world" which didn't have
faith in the banking system (i.e. they wanted coins of pure metal, not
the allows Rome started making).

> I'm not sure how much barter trading went on in the post-Roman world. 

It was fairly common for a long time, but I was mostly talking about
pre-Roman.

> > In particular, look at the Huns and Visigoths.  They both horded gold
> > and currency but didn't use it.  It was for bribing those who did, and
> > buying off Rome or buying things from Rome.
> 
> Hording could well have been common for another reason, at least in the
> post-Roman world. It would have been the most sane method of building up
> wealth to 'upgrade' to a larger piece of land. Even if buying or selling
> of land wasn't an option (it isn't in a purely feudal society but
> Anglo-Saxon Britain wasn't purely feudal), it could probably used to
> buy fiefdoms ... if you wait for a corrupt king who needs cash.

Well, in medieval times hoarding was quite common.  Some keeps were
built specifically for that.

Of course, it happened in the ancient world and among the tribes as
well.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- [4649 5920 4320 204e 4452 5420 5348 5920 4820
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