6139008-History-of-Money

embodied that mighty divinity (Kybele) was conveyed to Rome. In the very next year Hannibal embarked for Africa. ThePhrygian Goddess’ sanctuary was established on Palatine Hill. Some have argued that the cultic success in ridding Italy ofHannibal threw open the gates of Rome to a variety of Eastern cults. But the warfare had already helped bring down themoney system and Roman justice with it."The ‘commodization’ of Rome’s money system dramatically accelerated the emergence of a plutocracy – a ruling orderbased on wealth. ‘By the time of the 2nd Punic War there were already significant accumulations of capital in the handsnot only of the Roman Establishment, but of a non-Senatorial business class. This capital may have been the fruits of theprofits made during the 1st Punic War. Contractors commanded sufficient reserves to make deliveries to the Governmenton credit from 215 BC onwards."Our hypothesis that silver was provided to the mint at a six-fold overvaluation can help explain where the money camefrom. And the timing also works. "For the loans were being repaid even before the war was over. Then immediately upondefeating Hannibal, there was a political thrust to start a new war with Macedon. Apparently those benefiting from warfaredidn’t want any interruption to their profiteering."This eventually brought on a revolt on behalf of the small farmers led in turn by two aristocratic brothers, the Gracchi,inspired by Stoic philosophy. Both were martyred, and the era of Julius Caesar and his dictatorial successors took over.Each of these, while still striving for power, minted his own gold coins. This had a double purpose – financing theirattempt to seize supreme power and advertising the extent of power already attained. Under Augustus the ratio of gold tosilver was raised to 12:1, and an end was put to coining by patrician families. Julius Caesar had directed his conquest togold sources, that amongst much else would allow him to handle his huge personal debt. With every new colony founded,a new coining was launched under the Roman stamp to take care of its monetary needs. Despite Rome’s Easternconquests gold and silver drained off to the east, largely because of the luxury imports by the high-living new rich ofRome. Slaves replaced free labourers on the vast latifundia that took over as usury ruined the small farmers. All thisechoes strangely familiar in the claim of central banks to be independent of their government, no matter what theircharters may say. That is notably the case even in Canada and the United Kingdom, where the central governments are infact the sole shareholder of its central bank with the explicit ultimate responsibility for its basic policy. Moreover, theofficial goal of "zero inflation" is unrealizable in a pluralistic urbanized high-tech society, in which ever more indispensableinfrastructures are provided by the state. The coining of gold was considered the ultimate sign of sovereignty. Stripgovernment of that prerogative, and what is left is no longer a truly sovereign power.For a later period, after the Roman Empire had declined, it worked like this: The gold/silver ratio in the West was kepthigh, ranging over millennia, between 9 and 16 to 1. However, the ratio in India and Asia was kept low – usually around 6or 7 to 1. This meant that silver taken from Europe to India was exchanged for nearly twice as much gold in India as inEurope. The nexus of this trade was the land bridge above the Middle East. Whoever controlled that area usuallycontrolled the trade."If it was controlled from the West, they got 100% more gold for their silver than the local value. It worked just as wellfrom the East. If they controlled the trade they received 100% more silver for their gold. If control was shared, tradewould probably have been at a 9 to 1 ratio, giving each establishment a profit on exchange. "The existence of thisdichotomy and its significance is almost unknown (Jacobs, William, The Precious Metals, 1831, reprinted NY, A.M. Kelley,1968). Alexander Del Mar also discovered it. While the mechanism is still [generally] unrecognized, we can identify itstraces in the work of modern historians such as M. Rostovtzef’s Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World: ‘ThePtolemies [Macedonian successors to Alexander the Great in Egypt] ‘for reasons unknown to us but probably dictated byeconomics...separated themselves and their Kingdom from the rest of the Hellenized World. It seems to have been anaccepted fact that they derived an enormous reserve of gold from the Arabian caravan trade. "Pliny [the Elder] wrote that100 million Sesterces of silver, equivalent to one million gold Aurei, was annually exported to India and China from Rome.He had been appointed Procurator in Spain and entrusted with managing the Revenue. But the secrecy of the mechanismis underscored by the fact that its workings were not known to him, for he couldn’t understand why his countrymenalways demanded silver and not gold from conquered races."Banking in the Ancient Roman World 318 BCBanking and Business in the Roman WorldSeries: Key Themes in Ancient History by Jean Andreau Ecole des HautesEtudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris Translated by Janet Lloyd Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521380317 | ISBN-10:0521380316) DOI: 10.2277/0521380316 Published October 1999 . In the first century BC lending and borrowing by thesenators was the talk of Rome and even provoked political crises. During this same period, the state tax-farmers werehandling enormous sums and exploiting the provinces of the Empire. Until now no book has presented a synthetic view ofRoman banking and financial life as a whole, from the time of the appearance of the first bankers' shops in the Forumbetween 318 and 310 BC down to the end of the Principate in AD 284. Professor Andreau writes of the business deals ofthe elite and the professional bankers and also of the interventions of the state. To what extent did the spirit of profit andenterprise predominate over the traditional values of the city of Rome? And what economic role did these financiers play?Julius Caesar Strips Money Changers of Their Powers & is Murdered by Them (48BC)The Hidden History Of Money & New World Order Usury Secrets Revealed at last! Page 213