used to revise the “fixed value” of gold when they continued to print money for they would have to make a public admission that they were a bunch of idiots. So “tangible” money did nothing to prevent the increase in money supply. If you want to do something, deal with the issue. Do not fine your wife because the guy next door forgot to take the trash out. Eliminate borrowing and convert our republican representative forms of government to a real democracy where people must vote on every expenditure and then you will deal with the issue. Stop the nonsense that somehow “fiat” is the problem. That is like saying don’t eat carrots because everyone that ever did eventually died.
Money value historically fluctuates with supply and demand and always has – it cannot be fixed. Early attempts at wage and prices controls always failed from Babylonian times right up to the Wage & Price Controls of Diocletian (284-305AD) who attempted to restore silver coinage AFTER the Great Monetary collapse. It did not matter that coinage was restored. CONFIDENCE still collapsed and the coinage was rapidly hoarded and vanished from circulation. So yes, even when the money is of full value, it still will not circulate if people do not BELIEVE government. Indeed, there was still another war and finally Constantine (309-337AD) emerged as Emperor after defeating all rivals. He enjoyed some success but had to abandon Rome and created a new Capital Constantinople and revised the monetary system again. That lasted for some time and once more you find silver vanishing from circulation.
HYPERINFLATION has ONLY taken place in minor peripheral economies. It has NEVER taken place in a major economy. All major economies implode from deflation because as they need money, they attack their citizens destroying their own economies as we are doing right now. So while you wait for HYPERINFLATION, your taxes will rise, your rights will vanish, and you will see tanks on your streets before $30,000 gold that will still be the cost of a men’s suit. Forget this HYPERINFLATION and fiat nonsense. Government began getting involved with money first out of just standardizing the weight to facilitate trade as pictured above. That was it.
Government then began to stamp the image or badge of the city to impress people.However, the first city to “coin” money was also the first to discover “fiat” meaning the value is simply dictated by government (which we do not have today because paper money floats without a fixed value). All money is fiat whenever government is involved if you define that terms as meaning intangible money.
The stater was first issued from electrum a natural alloy or gold and silver with a weight of 14.2 grams. Then King Croisos (KROISOS) separated the gold from the silver creating the first bimetallic monetary system and the gold stater now was standardized in weight at 10.9 grams. When war began with Persia, the weight was reduced to 8.71 grams and the value was raised. Government discovered the power of “fiat” arbitrarily establishing the value of money to make a profit.
Here is a coin from Lydia 7th century BC with 9 moneychanger marks (foreign exchange brokers) verifying they tested the metal. This demonstrated that CONFIDENCE was not present simply because government weighed and valued its coinage by decree. If people trusted government, why test each coin?
Sweden 1666 Note
The whole reason people began to use banks was because the “money” could not be verified. Just because the coins were silver or gold did not mean anything. They could be debased, shaved, or forged. You deposited money in a bank and the bank CERTIFIED you were paying in “good” money. People did not want coins, they wanted the bank paper receipts. Like the moneychanger, the bank was certifying the transaction was taking place with proper value in “money”. Thus, paper money began in middle ages as receipts certifying deposits.
Even the first Bank of England notes were not a fixed denomination but were receipts for deposits. This note in 1694 states a promise to pay with the denomination wr