History of Money, 390BC –– 337AD
390 BC
Cackling Geese Saves Rome
The Gauls attack Rome but the cackling geese in the capital alerts the defenders. Since the city's reserves of money were saved the Romans did the logical thing. They built a shrine to Moneta, the goddess of warning. The word money and mint are derived from Moneta.
118 BC
Leather money
China issues leather money, which consist of pieces of white deerskin about one foot square. The skin had a value of 40,000 "cash". The "cash" was the name of a base metal coin.
48 BC
Do unto Caesar
Julius Caesar made money plentiful by coining his own money and started many massive public works and construction projects. Caesar won the love of the common people. The money changers who before Caesar had the monopoly on creating money were not very happy.
Caesar was assassinated by the politicians in the Roman Senate. Immediately after that the money supply started to shrink until it was only 10% of what it was under Caesar. Taxes increased as well as corruption and man of the people of Rome lost their lands and home
30 AD
The half shekel
During the so-called time of Christ Jews had to pay their temple tax using a coin the half shekel. It was half an ounce of pure silver with no image of a pagan emperor in it. This was said to be the only coin acceptable to God. Because after all God needed coins, maybe for the cosmic tollbooths or gumball machine. But there were only a limited number of coins in circulation, not because they were impossible to make but because the money changers understood the law of supply and demand (from taking econ 101 no doubt) and they were able to keep the price high due to the short supply.
54 — 68
Nero invents inflation
Nero debases the gold and silver coins ever so slightly and invents inflation. This slow inflation lasts for around 300 years.
306 — 337
The Solidus
Constantine issues the Solidus, a new gold coin which remained in use unchanged in weight or purity for 700 years.
313
Constantine Adopts Christianity and robs the pagan temples
Constantine adopts Christianity and confiscates the enormous treasures the pagan temples had amassed over the centuries. Even with this wealth of gold he continues to produce debased silver and copper coins. Thus holding true to his newfound religion he leaves the poor with an inflation-ridden currency while the rich get the gold