Money
Money and Values and Standardization
Value[edit | edit source]
- Starbucks example:
- creates competitive advantage through branding
- creates value by establishing its own standards:
- small = "tall"
- medium = "grande"
- large = "vente"
- and charges more for its unique standard
- same in all Starbucks
- notes to do
Money & trade
trade = geography movement scarcity/surplus technology technological and cultural diffusion
History of money
“I understand the history of money. When I get some, it's soon history.”
What must money be?
- Money must be scarce - Money must be transportable >>Micronesia currency of large limestone coins...9-12ft diameter, several tons... put them outside the houses.. great prestige... but they weren’t transportable, so tokens were created to represent them, or parts of them... Tokens = promises - Money must be authentic (not easily counterfeited) - Money must be trusted >>government sanction >>language/ writing - Money must be permanent (fruit and goats die...) problem with barter.. perishability
“Money can be anything that the parties agree is tradable” (Wikipedia)
Early monetary systems: 75,000 bc ... shells >>scarce and rare cattle crops/ herbs/ spices... specialty crops >>see definitions above, what money must be) Early civilization: spices = currency (crops, esp. pepper) gems, gold, rare minerals Early Discovery Age: Rum became a currency (more stable than gold) In prisons, cigarettes become currency
History of Coinage:
starts with the “Touchstone” ... touchstone...rub against it to measure purity (trust, value)
Phoenicians: created currency Representative Money: paper money = coin value Fiat money = back by a promise only
>> todo article
Links & Resources[edit | edit source]
- The History of Money by NOVA