Stone Money

Money’s impact on civilization as a whole is second to none. An object that was created that’s only value is what we humans hold society together. The value that money has is set by each nation’s economy. Throughout history, money has taken many different forms one example is, on a tiny island called Yap the people of this island use stones as a form of currency which shows how it may be different then what we are used to but to them it holds the same value as any other currency. What is money, why do we waste years of our life to do a job we may not like just to earn money to survive? Why do we subject ourselves to currency to control our lives? If you are born into a family with more money than others you get a headstart in life whereas if you’re born into poverty you gotta work twice as hard to make a living. A mere piece of paper can determine how much a person is worth.

On a tiny Island called Yap, we learn of a past civilization that used stones as currency. This one-hundred-year-old civilization is loved by economists because it answers what is money. We are told how the civilization realized that other countries used a form of currency they found on their own which was unique but got the job done. These stone pieces would come in all sizes and the bigger the better. While the currency being stone was already interesting the ways they recognized it was even more. For example, if Bob had a large stone in the village everyone knew it was his, so if Bob wanted to purchase something he would shift the ownership to whomever they bought from. Everyone would now recognize that the stone belonged to the new person. Another interesting thing about their civilization was how even if the stone was not on the island they would still count it as ownership. To compare this system I believe would not work in a larger country today. I believe this only worked because of how small the civilization was which led them to be able to maintain this. If this were tried in say America, with how large the Country is this would fail immediately. We may laugh at the idea of how they used stones as their currency but to them, our currency would be laughed at as well. 

In Brazil, in 1990 the inflation was so high that it got up to 80% each month. It got so bad the civilians were paid in IRV’s which were all virtual. This meant that none of their money was printed physically. Essentially this currency worked as a good substitute for cash as people could use this to buy food and pay the government, however, this was a lie all of the money was fake. But somehow this would work in ending the inflation that plagued the country. Thanks to four men who came to the Country and proposed this idea the Country was able to keep going.

To compare, to a current day example would be from “What is Bitcoin and How does it Work” by Matthew Sparks, in this article Sparks explains how people turn their money into these online assets that can gain value or lose value. A lot of the time these assets will lose value as time goes on as they start red hot but over time they will amount to nothing. This I would compare to Yap island and its people. I think how they set up their currency is pretty similar to the online assets in the sense that everyone knows whose online asset it belongs to and when ownership transfers everybody recognizes this just like with the stone.

Another example to compare would be, “The Bubble Burst on E-Currency Bitcoin ” Another bitcoin article however in this reading it explains how in 2018 there was an 80% collapse in crypto from its peak in January. This was the worst crypto fall in its history. I would compare this situation to the Brazil crisis in 1990 when inflation rose to 80% as well and both would make a big change and fix their systems for the better.

To conclude, currency has many kinds of forms, in the older civilization the Yaps had their stones, and we have our dollar bill and crypto. We human beings give these items value and without that, they are the same. We will work our entire lives just to earn more of this money.

Sparkes, M. (2021). What is bitcoin and how does it work? New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/definition/bitcoin/

Renaut, A. (n.d.). “The Bubble Burt on E-Currency Bitcoin. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137382559.0014

Joffe-Walt, C. (2010, October 4). How fake money saved Brazil. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” The Island of Stone Money(1991): 3-7. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.