 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues Podcast on Mark Thornton at the Mises Institute. Well, I'd like to talk a little bit today about the origin of the US dollar, the paper money today that we're forced to consume and use and hold by our government. At one time, the US dollar was made of silver, a precious metal, and circulated widely and used widely from the earliest days of the United States as embedded in the US Constitution. But it has a much longer history. As a matter of fact, it dates back to about 1500 AD in Middle Europe in Germany, where they minted approximately one ounce silver coins, and those coins were very popular, very productive, and the use of those silver coins spread throughout Europe and indeed was used elsewhere around the world. The Germans called this coin the Thaler. It would be spelled T-H-A-L-E-R, and that's where the term comes from, dollar, D-O-L-L-A-R. But the coins actually were popular and the French had a similar coin as well as the Netherlands and Spain. And actually, the Spanish version of the dollar was called the peso. From the earliest days of colonial America, we used Spanish pesos as our money or medium of exchange. So the dollar actually has a very long history, both in the old world of Europe and the new world of the Americas, dating back to 1500 or the early modern period, which is approximately 1500 to 1800. The period between the Middle Ages and the modern period. So what happened in this early modern period? Well, it was great for economic development based on those silver coins. Food became much more abundant, much more nutritious, and much more regular because trade expanded on the basis of those silver coins. Clothing developed from handmade clothing, which was a very poor construction, did not last long and wasn't very good until the end of that period when industrial means of production were beginning to be applied, closed last longer, and even the word fashion came into use, where prior only the wealthy, the kings, and religious leaders had fashionable clothing. By the end of the period, the emerging middle class had fashion. And in terms of housing, we went from a time where housing for the average person was made of mud, sticks, and grass. And at the end of this early modern era, housing was more likely made of bricks and wood so that structures that we lived in were much more durable, warmer, and comfortable. So when we look at that paper dollar today, remember that civilization was born on the basis of the silver version, the dollar, in Germany around the year 1500.