A short course on where money came from, what makes it work, and why we still trust it.
Before there was money, there was a problem. A short walkthrough of the 'double coincidence of wants' that made barter break down, the workarounds early societies tried (debt ledgers, multi-hop trades, forced exchange rates), and how money quietly emerged as the elegant solution — not by decree, but by shared agreement on what counts as valuable.
Why is some money 'good' and other money broken? A short walkthrough of the three jobs every functioning currency has to do — medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value — why all three are required, and how hyperinflation, gold, cowrie shells, and digital currencies all map onto the same framework.
Before there were coins, there were commodities — useful things that doubled as money. A short walkthrough of why salt, cattle, and gold became the world's first currencies, the five properties that decided which commodities won, and the built-in instability of money you could also eat, milk, or wear.
Once communities agreed money was money, the next problem was proving it. A short walkthrough of how the first stamped coins replaced weighing-and-biting with institutional trust — collapsing transaction costs, enabling vast empires, and introducing a brand-new failure mode: debasement, the silent inflation that toppled currencies long before paper money existed.
A free curriculum that takes you from zero to confident investor.
Pomegra
