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[00:06.22]And, whether money takes the form of silver coins, seashells, bars of gold or bank notes,
[00:12.68]that's been true from ancient times right down to the present day.
[00:17.29]Even lumps of clay can work better than silver coins, if people have enough confidence in them.
[00:22.86]In Ancient Mesopotamia, nearly 4,000 years ago,
[00:26.77]people used clay tablets like these ones to commit themselves to particular financial transactions.
[00:33.20]For example, this one, found a little southwest of Baghdad,
[00:37.49]specifies that a debtor will repay a lender 330 measures of grain on the harvest day.
[00:45.06]But this one's even more fascinating,
[00:46.55]because what it says is that a debt of four measures of barley should be repaid to the bearer of the clay tablet.
[00:54.51]And it's that idea of repayment to the bearer that really fascinates me.
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