A Brief History of Money
Wars have been waged, empires created, marriages ruined, inventions expanded, communities torn apart, eco-systems destroyed – all because of money, or the lack of it. The rise and fall of civilization hedges on the use and distribution of money. Money is power. Money’s important. The physical representation of money (value) was invented in Mesopotamia, around 5,000 years ago, when we began using the ‘shekel’, the first known coin. This was after we bartered for goods and services, without any intermediary exchange, we simply traded.
For thousands of years, across the world, currency sprouted up in different forms including paper money, copper, silver, gold coins, and more. The first bank (that still exists) in the world was formed in Siena, Italy in 1472. Before then, wealthy people stored their money in the basement of temples that were populated by priests and temple workers, and guarded by armed soldiers. These temples would lend money out to wealthy merchants for interest, one of the first examples of creditors, and debtors. These were always ransacked during war, which was expensive, and still is. This is why Rome fell.
Banks were created, and still exist, to provide economic stability and opportunity to the countries and communities they serve. Historically, they’ve served certain people and agenda’s over others, making money through interests, loans, and investments. In the United States, the first bank can be traced back to 1780, created to fund the Revolutionary War and create financial independence from Great Britain. Since then thousands of banks have been created across the country, since the original thirteen colonies. Though, there was no central authority to regulate the economy and financial institutions, creating problems and dissatisfaction within the banking system.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was created in 1913 to regulate the banking industry and create security for the country surrounding the economy. The Fed seeks to create economic stability and opportunity by setting interest rates, observing systemic risks, monitoring financial institutions, creating consumer protection (bank security), creating monetary policy, and more. The choices and decisions made by the Federal Reserve are generally sound, but influence the entire country, and globe. This is an example of a centralized bank, holding the power to impact the world, based on the decisions of a few.
Back in the 1930’s Henry Ford once said that “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” He said this during the Great Depression which was (in part) caused by something called Fractional Reserve Banking (unregulated). It’s the practice of banks to lend out 10x more than they have on hand. Meaning, if you deposit $1,000, they can loan out $10,000. In general, this helps grow the economy and creates more opportunities for people. However, in economic downturns, and times of scarcity, people withdraw from the banks, and all of a sudden the banks are left with less than they promised to their creditors, and can go under.
While this is still practiced this, it’s regulated now. The Federal Reserve, since 1934, has insured FDIC most banks with a $250,000 (originally $2,500) per person guarantee. Meaning, if there were a financial downturn, and a bank run, people would be insured up to that amount. This has since restored trust (what gives currency value) in the American banking system. In 1971, when Nixon abolished the Gold Standard and created Fiat Currency (fiat meaning ‘determined by authority’), it gave the government more flexibility and power to set financial standards for the country.
It was after World War 1 that Wall Street and New York City surpassed London as the World’s most significant financial center. Housing the majority of the trading for hedge funds, large companies, banking and financial institutions. It’s a highly centralized system, and has had five significant crashes and crises over the last hundred years – a sign of inefficiency. Wall Street watches over and accounts for a majority of the world’s trading and economic activity, so when it ‘crashes’ everyone is negatively affected.
Traditional finance and banking play a huge role in extraction culture. A term used to denote how capitalism and the systems it perpetuates, tend to withdraw value, nutrients, energy, and time from people, the land, and culture – for profit. In traditional finance and banking, money is seen as the end goal, and investments and financial institutions focus on projects and work that will lead to more gains of capital, for a few. It tends to be nearsighted (meaning focusing only on the short term), as opposed to far sighted (focusing on the long term). In this monopolistic minded way of seeing the world, we’ve experienced a host of negative systemic effects that are effecting both people and the Earth.
It’s a head game.
In this fragmented system, we’ve seen the division in a stratified class, race, sex, and disciplines. Meaning, certain industries (and people) tend to make more money than other than disciplines (like education). It’s a reflection of where we are as a culture, and what we value. If you look up what areas of the economy make the most money, it’s finance, technology, investment, trade, and financial services, etc. It’s people who handle and understand the rules of money. This is was the cultural context of the Old World.
As we move towards decentralization, and harmony with the natural world, what we truly value will begin to emerge within each one of us. As we move towards a world that is more abundant, the world will begin to heal itself, and the soul will come through.
Naturally.
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The Future of Money
In 2015, Economist John Fullerton shared his principles of regenerative economics with the world. It’s a merging of impact investing, sustainable business, and living systems among other things. He was once a managing director for JP Morgan, until he listened to his inner voice in 2001 and has now moved on to create Capital Institute in 2010, one of the leaders of Regenerative Finance.
Regenerative & Decentralized Financing models & understandings seek to translate the world of money to the laws of Nature & the Cosmos, just as Buckminster Fuller predicted. In this way, money seeks to regenerate communities and operate in alignment with natural systems, valuing the health and resilience of the ecosystem over personal personal financial gain. It seeks circulation through the eco-system (efficiency) over accumulation.
Notice how this is a circle, with an infinite sign in the middle, with a cyclical motion. Think about the symbolism involved in this diagram vs. the dollar bill.
The 8 cohesive principles are as follows:
Right Relationship: This one speaks to The First Law of Ecology, that everything is connected, and viewing that the economy as embedded deeply as part of the biosphere. This portion speaks to quantum physics, and ancient traditions and how damaging any part of the whole ripples out to negatively effect the whole. So we stay in Right Relationship.
Views Wealth Holistically: In this view of wealth, we don’t just look at the figures on a spreadsheet or an assets account. We see wealth socially, relationally, culturally, spiritually, and ecologically. We’re only as strong as the weakest link, and we behave in a way that services the whole of life.
Innovative, Adaptive, Responsive: As the rate of change increases, we understand that our ability to adapt to change is our greatest evolutionary trait (in stark contrast to Charles Darwin). As markets and the free enterprise system evolve, we seek to intuit the decisions that are best for the whole, as opposed to individuals wants and greed.
Empowered Participation: We are each part of an interdependent system that benefits most when each individual entity contributes to betterment of the whole. Creating conditions that empower everyone to contribute to the whole, is what will ultimately unlock unseen potential within the system, further contributing to greater health and wellbeing.
Honors Community & Place: Every place is unique, every ecosystem its own. A compilation of all the people, culture, geography, and history that makes something special. In this way, each ‘place’ will make decisions that are for it’s own best interest, in relation to the whole.
Edge Affect Abundance: Creativity & Abundance flourish synergistically at the ‘edges’ of systems. For example, if you look at San Francisco, it is a place of high economic activity and innovation because it is touched by the entire globe. It’s the same where a salt marsh meets an ocean. When a diversity of ideas and resources meet within a system, it manifests in creative ideas that manifest abundant outcomes and solutions.
Robust Circulation: Just as our bodies much circulation blood and oxygen to nourish, and release nutrients, hormones, and antibodies throughout the system – our economies must circulate finances, waste, and quality information in an effective way throughout society for it to be healthy and whole.
Seeks Balance: Everything in Nature seeks balance, and homeostasis. A balancing of the masculine & feminine energies. In this same way, our economies achieve resilience, efficiency, and coherence when the systems of our economy are balanced within and amongst each other. All in contribution to the greater whole.
Regenerative Economics is a heart game. The heart harmonizes us with the Earth.
In this game we unlock energy and the compounding healing effects of solving systemic problems. We heal the collective, we empower individuals and their communities, and we regenerate the Earth.
According to Now Partners top talent is moving towards regenerative companies at a multitude of 300%. The World Economic Forum has stated that Gen Z is the most environmentally concerned generation of all time. Customers are seeking to purchase at B certified corporations, which have tripled in quantity over the past 5 years to 3,500 according to Forbes. There’s a general trend towards Harmony with Nature.
As we move towards the future, blockchain, first introduced in 2008 through Bitcoin, is on the rise. Blockchain works in a decentralized fashion in that every transaction if public, held in a ledger, and transmitted to multitude of nodes (computers) throughout the network – at every transaction. Because of this, no one can go back and retroactively change the ledger, without consensus of the ecosystem. This is how Nature works. According to IBM blockchain increases trust, transparency, and the traceability of data shared across a (business) network, or collection of networks. It’s open sourced.
The future of money lives in blockchain technology, due to this openness. According to CNBC banks and firms like JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are investing in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While some of these companies aren’t yet in the Regenerative Economics heart set, there’s a general leaning in the direction of blockchain technology, which behaves like Nature. According to TripleA there are 420 million crypto users world wide, about 4.2% of the world’s population. DemandSage says that 10% of Americans use blockchain, and it’s mostly Gen Z & Millennials.
As the infrastructure is invested in and created for blockchain to work (across the globe), efficiency increases for the economy to adapt even more quickly to the changing needs of the collective – where investments and money go where they will do the most good for the whole.
This will allow more space for true abundance, health, and flourishing.
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Money and economics is one of the most complex topics in the world, and becomes increasingly complex as we evolve as a species. I’m not a banker, or an economist, but doing the research helps illuminate what’s been happening in the world, and how the world of money and finance has been (largely) separated from the health of the people and the Earth.
This becomes incredibly clear when studying the language used with money and finance. It’s generally devoid of any natural, or ecosystem language. Which is something Capital Institute includes very well.
They say net worth equals self-worth. And there’s truth in that statement. When we love and value ourselves, we live life more in alignment with what we love, and help others accordingly. However, society and culture (up to now) has valued certain things, over others. Earth consciousness, climate change, healing people, have been less valued, up until recently. As our values as a culture, change, the way we spend our money (an expression of our values), changes too. There’s more room for our soul.
I believe in developing wealth consciousness, and that money equals service. But what are we serving? And is that a wholistic understanding of what’s happening on the planet?
Changing the world costs money.
But not changing the world, costs more than money.
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With love,
Broderick
