That's what the Conquistadores got wrong.
They failed to see that money is about trust, even faith.
Trust in the person paying you the money, trust in the Central Bank issuing the money,
trust in the commercial bank that honors the cheque.
Money isn't metal, it's trust inscribed.
And it doesn't much matter what it's inscribed on.
Paper, silver, clay, or a screen provided the recipient believes in it.
There was one huge possibility created by the emergence of money as a system of mutual trust
a possibility that would revolutionise world history.
It was the idea that you could rely on people to borrow money from you and pay it back at some future date
That's why the root of credit is credo, the Latin for "I believe".
Without the invention of credit, the entire economic history of our world would have been impossible