The Ascent of Money Episode 1: Dreams of Avarice

“Imagine a world without money,” Ferguson’s statement upon beginning the Dream of
Avarice, which is the first episode of the six-episode documentary entitled, The Ascent of Money.
Particularly, the first episode of the documentary first talked about the historical background
behind the rise of money and how money was valued by people from different countries. On the
second half, it tackled about the evolution of credit system.
An important point in financial history is that during the earlier decades, the value of
money was vague; that’s why people from different countries had different interpretations of the
value of money. For the Inca Empire, the unit of value was labor, that was why when the
conquerors arrived in the Inca Empire; and had shown a great interest in the golds and metals,
the Incas were not able to understand it. For the Europeans and Spaniards, gold and silver were
the units of value of money. Though, it is important to take note that the too much exploitation of
Spaniards to the silver resulted in a decline in value and the prices going up. If we connect it to
modern times, this is called hyperinflation. It is also noteworthy how the credit and debt system
existed back then and how it worked. In Ancient Mesopotamia, clay tablets were used to inscribe
promises to pay the loan. This shows a similarity to how we use a promissory note nowadays.
Though, back then, there are difference on beliefs regarding interest between the Jews and
Christians. For the Christians, it is considered a sin to charge an interest. While the Jews, charged
interest to a Christian, or to stranger, but were not allowed to lend to a Jew. Today, in our credit
system, what we adhere to when it comes to the credit system is the contract between the parties
involved. This doesn’t differ to what Jews and Christians were doing back then, the difference is
that in the present, religion doesn’t affect the credit system.
Upon watching The Ascent of Money: Dream of Avarice, I learned a lot about the history
of money and the credit system. Though, in my perspective, there’s not much difference on how
money and credit system work today and back then. It just improved today, it was studied to
stabilize it and understand how things affect each other. But it doesn’t hide the fact that money
and credit play an important role in the development of the world; as Ferguson stated, the entire
economic history of our world would have been impossible without credit. Though I hate the
system of credit, it is indeed true that with the credit system, people were able to connect with
each other and goods and services were able to go around the around. This documentary just
showed and explained how powerful an impact money does have in the history of the world.