History of International Currencies Christopher Weber

C. Weber writes an investment newsletter, lives in Monaco so apparently makes a good living off of it. I got ahold of a pdf called Historyofmoneycompleter.pdf. The following are my notes on his opinions. When I think it important enough to disagree, I will do so in italics.

The Mayans were in their golden age from 250-800 AD, the Dark Ages in Europe. We do not know what they used for money.

World currencies can utterly lose value, and fairly rapidly. The idea of the dollar losing its reserve currency status was laughable 3 years ago.

Money must

1. have accepted value
   
2. be durable
   
3. bedivisible
   
4. consistent quality (even after division)
   
5. convenient
   

The standard has almost always been either gold or silver. Paper money is only valuable when people trust the issuer. Greeks made the first international currency, the silver Athenian Drachma. Its weight and quality stayed at 67 grains of fine silver (480 grains == 1 troy ounce) from Solon of Athens (600 BC) to Alexander the Great (circa 300 BC), falling to 65 grains as Greece declined and was absorbed by Rome. The Roman Denarius was an exact copy (in size and weight) of the Drachma. It declined only modestly for 250 years, declining to 60 grains at the time of Julius Ceaser. But the Roman economy pushed first the poor and then the middle class into debt. Nero began debasing the currency in 54 AD. The final straw came in 193, under Septimus Serverus, who reduced the denarius to 26 grains of silver. At this point, the coin was no longer accepted as currency in the outside world. The flow of imports (Inda, China) stopped. Trade, economy, and living standards went into a tailspin. One historian, writing in 1934, described it thus:

a condition of depression and despair to which the modern world ... can present no parallel ... Everywhere land was falling to waste untilled, empty, gaunt, the water courses dried and the poplar sere and yellow ... the slaves running away and revolting, the hired managers ... hastening to line their pockets ... and the patrician owners hiding their gold and silver and jewelry against the day of inevitable collapse

We should also here note the role of disease, which drastically reduced populations. Horrid times indeed.
The fall of Rome lead to the rise of Byzantium. Along with many other things, Constantine introduced the gold Solidus, 65 grains. The idea of stable currency (which had not existed for some 500 years) remained alive. He also saw that debt had ruined the Romans, so outlawed interest. This coin lasted over 750 years.

Next in line was the Islamic Dinar, again at 65 grains of gold. It lasted 450 years.

Islamic world domination ended when they introduced paper money.