 Hello and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade and this is Adam Novus. Hi Adam Hello, Liz. How are you doing today Adam? I'm doing fine. Thank you. Well, that's good We are here to talk about something that Some people just don't really want to talk about anyway But some people love talking about and that is Money money money money. This is a this is actually a very interesting Conversation because around the world people talk about money and feel comfortable talking about money at different levels. Yes, it's true So if you are in the US people do not really like talking about money Well in in vague terms they do but not about their own money like you would never I would never ask you like Adam How much money do you make? Yeah, but in other places, that's an okay question. Like it's right Right, exactly. So but we're not gonna talk about that sort of stuff about money We are gonna talk about the history of money. So how did we get here where we? exchange this paper For good. Yeah, well and maybe not even paper anymore. Yeah or transfer numbers Over the internet and so we are here to talk about the history of money We hope you stick around If you would like to see this program as you read along because you haven't seen it yet You can go to our website at www.spotlightenglish.com You can also listen and follow along on YouTube if that's not where you're already watching us We'll also link that program in the little little eye That's up here somewhere and you can do that and if you are on a podcast Of course, you can follow the link to visit our website or YouTube if you are on YouTube I really encourage you to check out the button below that says join and to become a member You get a couple perks that way and there are a couple different levels You can get PDFs of scripts that you can always keep you can mark a mob And and things like that and of course if you're on our website You can also get our scripts delivered to you by email Every Monday the script comes the link to the audio comes and you have no excuses for great English practice and each of those is a little bit of a different cost, but Yeah, we think it's a great value and we think it's a great help And we hear that it's a great help from People who have done that so if you're on YouTube, give us a like Subscribe hit the little bell so you never miss any of our videos and now Let's get down to business. Let's get down to business. Yeah, so I love this program because Everyone uses money That's right. It and it's it's not just we use money, but we use money I Don't say we don't think about money, but we just assume it's it's part of everyone's life Right, and you think like well, how did we get to this point where I I have this little plastic card? And I plug it into an ATM a Bank machine and then it gives me like paper back But like what and then you take that paper Broken or and you you give it to someone and they give you yeah, or they give you a piece of clothing So so I love this program because it really tells us like how did we get here in a really quick and simple version, right? So this first kind of money that we had was not actually money. It was like bartering So trading maybe so let's talk about bartering because people might not know what that means It's let's say I've got a chicken and you want my chicken or I have less two chickens You want my chicken you might think of Well, you might have something I want right right like maybe I have Vegetables yeah, so I say carrots and potatoes. I say my chicken is worth My chicken is worth five potatoes or something like that. We agree on a rate and we just we trade Yeah, right, but that wasn't everybody kind of like we everybody has the things that they have but they can Barter them for other things right so that was the first sort of money, right? And that's different for every person all of those things are are different for different people, right? And what happens if you don't have anything what happens if all of my potatoes and carrots? Like got drowned because there was a huge rain and there's none lot Yeah, and you can't save your potatoes year after year right for a year when you do have so there is obviously some problems with Bartering so then we move on to proto money and this is things like like Adam I have like this container of very beautiful shells Mm-hmm. I will give you four of my shells for your chicken, right? Did you take that? Well, I would have to know I mean sometimes I would think that they're they're beautiful And I might value but I might also be able to take those shells and then Travel to a different city and exchange them because I don't want to take my chickens every time I take my chickens on the road They get sick and they're noisy, but if I can just take shells Then and then I can exchange them for spices or something like that. I love this world We've created where we're bartering shells my chickens and your potatoes who knew we're moving through history moving through history together Yeah, so then we've got this proto money, and I think that lasts quite a long time actually Because the first coins come in Egypt Right, and that is I guess I mean I don't know exactly how that came about But maybe the Egyptians were like you guys these shells like they still break but we can make metal into these little circles and It's maybe like this metal that we that not everybody can get So has some value. It has some value. So Yeah, let's make these coins Right, and then the first person who's like I want to put my face on a coin So that people are like they always think of me is Alexander the Great. Oh Man Alexander the Great. Why not? Yeah, well, that's maybe why he's called Alexander the Great right instead of like Alexander the okay Maybe he was just Alex and he's like, you know what people don't know me I'm gonna I'm gonna put that on the coin Yeah, exactly. He's like yo guys. I'm your leader right, oh Which of course a lot of people have used money as a way to celebrate people whether they're kings or queens of countries or Important people through history Have been featured on money, but I think most clearly Because we should know that money Very quickly once you start doing that You if I'm the leader of one country and I put my face on a coin and you're the leader of you know, Liz adonia You might not accept the money that I make right No, no, no, I only want money with my own face Exactly you want your money with your own face So you make your coins. I make my coins and of course we know in the world. There's lots of different kinds of money You know currencies many different countries have their own currency Which is the value of the the money that's used there, right? So so we go from these we've got all these coins and then I think that spreads to different places, right? We even have an example in the program about what is it Queen Victoria? Who puts her face? No, it's Maria Teresa from Oh Where Austria? Yes, thank you In Austria and she puts her face on a coin and it's even still used until 1924 in some places Which is pretty incredible So But people are like hauling around these bags of coins, right? They finally figured out how they're gonna, you know use them in different systems or different countries But they're like These coins they're so heavy right because they're made of metal and metal is a very heavy thing a hundred pounds of metal So they decide to make paper money. Yeah Which I can see that's a lot easier to carry carry around right like a hundred a hundred bills Yeah, a hundred paper monies right are a lot lighter to carry than a hundred coins Well, and this is where I think the idea of money gets really interesting because you say, okay We're gonna take this heavy one dollar coin and instead of traveling around with it We're gonna put it away and instead we're gonna take a we're gonna take a piece of paper like this and say it Represents one gold coin for instance. Yeah, but then eventually people are like, you know what? We can just make more of these Yeah, so let's just make more and do we need to have coins? No, we're just gonna make more and We are simplifying Economic theory. Oh for sure By but but also we're not like you just people just do that and we all agree We're like that pay that piece of paper means That it is worth this much, right? Okay, so Adam then then we get to the point where we're like, okay I don't actually want to keep all of my pieces of paper that are worth so much in my house or you know In my pockets, so I'm gonna store them in a bank Yep, but then I want to be able to like give someone this money Yeah, without actually having to go to the bank, right? So then now what I have is a check and even this is old now Right people don't do checks that much. Yeah, so I write I write and I say This check is to Adam. It's for $20 and I signed my name on it and then I give it to you right you go to your bank and You give that check to your bank and your bank is like hey other bank. Hey, Liz is bank We need $20 and my bank gives it to your bank and your bank gives it to you. Yeah But then we go a step further. Yeah The next step is the next step is well I don't want to have what if I don't have I ran out of checks and I don't know I don't have a pen with me and I don't have a stamp to put on an envelope to mail my check to you I want to be able to go into a store and just make a decision right there And so we get credit cards and bank cards that Simply take all the that phone call of bank calling bank put it in a computer you plug it in Pull it out or swipe it. I guess I mean there's been different ways of doing it But it was definitely always the beep boop boop and And then you can just try and like and obviously if you're watching this today, and you are Probably under 25 years old You are sitting there thinking who are these old people? What's a check? What's a check? Why would you send a piece of paper to someone? What's a stamp? I've never sent a piece of mail in my life. Anyway, yeah We we know that you're probably already you're watching this and you're already thinking about Where we're gonna go in our conversation like you can tell we were gonna talk about credit cards And we're gonna talk about virtual currencies in a second But just stay with us stay with us and keep watching this because it's it's fascinating about how people Agree upon what's valuable and how this thing works or even how that transfer works like why can I pick up my phone and just like even over Facebook send you $5 right or over Venmo or Cash app or or that we have people who are watching this right now who are members of this this YouTube channel and Support this channel for a couple dollars, but live on the other side of the world right? How does that work? I don't know it is really amazing. Yeah, this is Like you talked about like the whole like economic reasons for things earlier like that's not really how my brain works So like for me, it's all like This is all magic. Yeah Yeah, no, I think it's really interesting and of course we have what let's let's just move toward talking about Bitcoin and Ethereum and all these virtual currencies. Oh, yeah is even a whole other layer of complexity and we won't talk about What virtual currencies are but if you're watching this, I'm assuming you've heard of some of the big ones We do and that's to interrupt you Adam. Yeah, you have a program about So if you wanted to if you're watching this and you are wondering like what is Bitcoin anyway? You visit the link. I'll link it in this video and in the description and you can go there and just get a really quick Overview a quick summary of what Bitcoin is. Yeah, so go ahead Adam So it is a in my brain. It is a currency that is not associated with a country It's not associated with Linked to any other thing like like gold and or silver or some of the traditional things And so and there's again in the in that Bitcoin program. It talks about how it stays safe but of course there there it's It's all what we I mean it all of these things we're talking about is You agree. There's value in this. I agree. There's value in this and it's a it's it's about efficiency In some ways, right? Like I don't have to carry my chickens and you don't have to carry your potatoes around Finding new ways of being efficient But when this happens, there's also problems as well like I know that virtual currencies have Raised the level of kidnapping around the world. Oh, I know right? Let's not go there But it does create problems as well. Well, even even access to it, right? People who already have a lot of money are going to have better access to Getting Bitcoin right in the first place So it's theoretically Accessible to everybody in the world, but it's not really. Do you have any Bitcoin Liz? I don't I don't need I will say I have a neighbor who does a little Bitcoin And another neighbor who has done Bitcoin for a couple years But for me, I just It's I don't know if it's too risky or if it's just like I don't want to wade into something that I don't understand Yeah, that's probably but I just I'm not yeah, I don't have any to you. No, I mean the closest thing we have is we have some Retirement investments that we've tried to and I don't really understand those But those are the thing that seems safe or you just have to do I don't know So this is so let us know if you're if you were into virtual currencies or Bitcoin Put it in the comment below about if you think they're a good idea Are they a good idea? Are they gonna be around for a long time and? What what kind of Bitcoin or virtual currency do you think is is good? Please don't don't mark it if you're like trying to sell anyone on But just let us know in the comments. I'm sorry But I would love to know because I know that our our listeners our viewers have a wide variety of Interests like I know some of them must be economists Yeah, so if you are someone who studies this, please I love to learn. I'd love to hear more about it in the comments or Or whatever so yeah, feel free to leave us a comment or You know, don't leave a comment like you guys are so old. Nobody. Yeah, we know we know we're old Yeah, everybody knows that but But yeah, I would love to hear what you have to think If you haven't seen this or seen or heard this program yet the history of money I really encourage you to go to our website again. It's www.spotlightenglish.com you can check it out on our YouTube channel as well and wherever you get your podcasts if you prefer just to listen And so until next time we hope you listen watch practice and learn spotlight out