The start of monetary history.

[Silver2damoon]

Monetary history


I would like to start at the very beginning of monetary history, because its a very good place to start. So when do you think was the earliest ever recorded financial transaction where the unit of account and the means of exchange was recorded? And what was the first ever unit of account mentioned? Interestingly it is silver that is first mentioned not gold, it is in Gen 13:2 Where Abraham was heavily stocked with silver and gold. This was not really a financial transaction as such but a good indication of what was being used as money. A few chapters later in 17:13,22 and 23 mentions purchasing with money, well what was being used as money here? What was being used as money at this time? Chapter 20:16 tells us about 1000 silver pieces of money.
Then Abraham in chapter 23 first of all in v9 got silver ready for a burial place for his wife. Then in v13,15 and 16 he weighed out the required amount of silver to bury his beloved wife Sarah. He paid for her funeral with silver, this was the first earliest ever recorded financial transaction.
Now most of this book is based on solid facts that can be verified. Like the very first mention of money/silver in recorded history. Some of it will be my opinion based on sound reasoning which is this next bit, I am going to say that silver was most probably being used as money long before this first ever recorded example. There are several accounts of carrying on in business, and most importantly accounts saying they were buying and selling long before Abraham's first recorded financial transaction. But the first ever record of the unit of account is later as already mentioned. The account's from before did not say bartering as means of exchange it said buying and selling so there must have been a unit of account, even if it wasn't recorded. This is not proof alone of my theory that silver was being used as money but further sound reasoning to support my theory comes from Genesis 4:22 where they were mining copper and iron and other metals to make tools. Why is this so interesting? Well silver has a lower melting point than iron and some of these other metals they were refining. Also silver is many times a by-product of mining copper and iron and other metals. So there was a good chance they did have silver at these times 1000yrs before the first ever recorded financial transaction I mentioned, and the point I am making in this book is that silver is nearly always the money of last resort but also the money of first resort as well.

So that was the very beginning of monetary history, we are not sure the exact time but my theory is long before Abraham. But human history did not start that long before Abraham because he was born only 2 years after Noah died and Noah was born not long after the first man ever Adam, died. So we are talking about very early on right at the start of humans being on the Earth. No doubt about it silver was money when we get up to Abraham's time period, and who was the dominant world power at this time? The first ever major dominant world power on the scene was Ancient Egypt. There is much evidence that silver was being used as money for a long time during Egypt's dominance on the Earth. Joseph who was sold by his jealous brothers as a slave to Egypt two generations after Abraham. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, most probably these were silver ingots. When his brothers years later came to Egypt to buy food during the famine they paid with silver. But towards the end of the reign of Pharaoh's the monetary cycle that has repeated throughout all known history began to make its presence. The people were deceived and convinced to use something other than gold and silver as a means of exchange and a unit of account. At first the imported gold and silver pieces were used by the Egyptians as precious metal of standardised weight in ingots rather than coins. Then other things were introduced as a promise to pay with silver. To start with in the monetary cycle when some form of currency is introduced a temporary prosperity or false boom happens. To understand this false boom part of the monetary cycle, think of a business who is borrowing twice as much as they have profit every month. For as long as the bank foolishly keeps lending them funds every month they will look like they are booming but it is a false boom and can not last. This happened in ancient Egypt they became by far the wealthiest nation ever to exist on Earth up until this time, all because of expanding their currency supply and people believing it is worth the same as gold and silver. But the monetary cycle is very consistent and after the false boom which can vary in length, come the feeling that something is wrong with the expanding currency and then the slowly losing faith in the currency that has replaced gold and silver. Maybe you are feeling that way about the expanding currency supply in the world right now.

According to wilipedia Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred thousands of years BC. Originally money was gold and silver ingots. Then a form of receipt, representing gold and silver in storage in Ancient Egypt replaced the ingots.
This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, formed the basis of trade in Ancient Egypt. After gold and silver were replaced with currency though it is not known everything that functioned as a currency to facilitate exchanges, but before Egypt went over to currency it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of silver, functioned as the medium of exchange. Then grain, salt as already stated and other things functioned as currency. Remember anything at all other than gold and silver used as a medium of exchange is currency only gold and silver are at all times money in and of themselves.
Many Egyptologist's and historians speculate that many other things were used as currency at this time which replaced gold and silver ingots as means of exchange.
This, one of the first cases of using something other than gold and silver, ended badly for the once great Egyptian world power, and the rise of the next great power on the scene Ancient Assyria. The monetary cycle repeated as it always has and gold and silver revalued to account for all the currency that had been added to the supply. The currency also revalued to its true value. Assyria went back to using gold and silver, thus monetary precious metals did their first accounting and revalued to account for all the currency that had been added to supply. You could say one of the first hyperinflations. The currency goes to its true value of almost nothing and gold and silver value to their true value.

Consider these words recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Rome was the world power at the time of writing and the Anglo-American world power was the seventh.

We have looked at Egypt, now lets look at the other world powers of Bible prophecy.

So After Egypt Gold and silver started off again as the dominant forms of means of exchange in Assyria, which were used as common denominators of value. Barley, salt again and other forms of currency however, slowly replaced money.

Thus the monetary cycle started to repeat and the people started using currency (anything other than gold and silver) as a means of exchange. This once again brought great prosperity to ancient Assyria, but as we now know it was what I call a false boom. Eventually the currency supply is expanded more and more, until the general feeling is something is wrong. The free market and the will of the public bid up the price of forgotten gold and silver to meet the currency supply. Whenever this happens it always ends badly for the nation who issued the currency.


While thinking about monetary history the Bible gives an incredible account of some of the world powers “In the second year of the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar,” wrote the prophet Daniel, “Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit began to feel agitated, and his very sleep was made to be something beyond him.” (Daniel 2:1) The dreamer was Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire. He had effectively become world ruler. The following day Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “There exists a God in the heavens who is a Revealer of secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what is to occur in the final part of the days.” Daniel was ready to reveal not only the future of the Babylonian Empire but an outline of world events from Nebuchadnezzar’s day to our time and beyond.—Daniel 2:24-30.

(The prophetic dream has been well written about, but I am looking at it from a world monetary history point of view. If you want to learn more about the more important aspects of the prophecy I suggest the Daniel's Prophecy book published by JW.org.)

Nebuchadnezzar listened intently as Daniel explained: “You, O king, happened to be beholding, and, look! a certain immense image. That image, which was large and the brightness of which was extraordinary, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was dreadful. As regards that image, its head was of good gold, its breasts and its arms were of silver, its belly and its thighs were of copper, its legs were of iron." Daniel next declared: “This is the dream, and its interpretation.”—Daniel 2:36. “You, O king, the king of kings, you yourself are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:37, 38) The successive world powers represented by the metallic parts of the image could now exercise world domination. Lets look at them one at a time a what led to their demise as world powers.

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Lets go back to the start again, Before money was invented, people traded, using a barter system. They exchanged goods and services of equal value. Traders using barter eventually saw the need for a more convenient commodity that could be used to buy and sell goods. The solution was to use precious metals such as gold and silver coins and ingots to buy goods and services.
For example as already said the earliest recorded example was right at the start of the Bible when Abraham bought a burial site for his beloved wife Sarah he weighed out the required amount of silver.-Genesis 23:14-16
Silver was almost certainly money long before this first recorded example. The first coins and ingots were likely minted in Lydia (modern-day Turkey) sometime even 1000's of years before Christ. Metal workers in various countries were soon mass producing silver coins and people throughout the lands mentioned in the Bible began using them.
As well as traders another group who handled money were the bankers. They devised saving systems, made loans, and paid out interest to those who invested in the bank. Jesus referred to these bankers in an illustration about slaves who were given various amounts of money with which to do business.-Matthew 25:26,27
As silver coins and ingots could be heavy and cumbersome these bankers soon devised ways of holding onto peoples silver money and issuing currency in place. Lots of things have been used as currency throughout history like shells, sticks and of course paper but only gold and silver are money.

Apparently by Nimrod’s time (Nimrod was Noah's great grandson so soon after the flood c. 2270 B.C.E.), the basis for such a system was largely in place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that “from the third millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks.” The main money used was silver bullion known as a Shekel. For bigger purchases they used the Mine = 0,5 KG silver (60 Shekel)
Talent = 30 KG silver. For smaller purchases the Korn / Gran =44 mg silver Sekel = 8 mg silver. Here is the interesting bit according to some historians they in time started issuing written checks or receipts for stored silver (carved on on plates or written on animal skins) with same personal details as checks today (Amount, quantity, date, name etc). The Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar—the original name for what was later called Babylonia—carried on “a surprisingly complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and providing letters of credit.” Or in simple terms confusing the people about what is money and currency and getting them to think currency was as good money. Then those with the power to write on animal skins "this is worth one ounce of silver" could literally create as much wealth as they wanted. As long the people were fooled into believing it was worth one oz of silver then they could spend as many animal skins as they could create, i.e far more than there were ounces of silver in existence.

Commercial activities in Nimrod’s day are not directly referred to in the Bible. Yet, expressions found in its first book, such as “to buy,” “to sell,” and “carry on business,” indicate that at least a few hundred years later, commercial activities were commonplace.—See Genesis 25:31; 34:10, 21; 39:1; 41:56, 57.

So we are up to Babylon the 3rd world power after Egypt and Assyria.

It is true that for a prolonged period of time, cuneiform texts are silent with respect to commercial activities in Babylonian society. Admitting that this is difficult to explain, the book Ancient Mesopotamia nevertheless concludes that “one cannot assume that trade relations ceased through that millennium, especially since they are known to have flourished greatly in the subsequent period.” This work suggests that at that time trade may have rested mainly in Aramaic hands and that papyrus and leather (animal skins the first forms of paper) were used as writing materials as well as currency. These have not been preserved through the ages like the cuneiform tablets that can be seen in the British museum. All we know is that the once mighty Babylon was sacked in 539 B.C.E. If any of these animal skins had been preserved through the ages I wonder if there would have been evidence that because animal skins were increasing in quantity at such a rate the people began losing confidence in them. Babylon experienced the knock out blow of worthless currency and the once again won battle between currency and real money gold and silver? I put forth one theory that could have possibly been the case. As as happened many times throughout history most recently in Zimbabwe under president Mugabe the soldiers began to lose faith in the currency no matter how much they were paid. So thinking of Babylon why were there no lookouts or guards who would have noticed Cyrus armies and why were the gates left open? It's only a theory, but what is fact is that Babylon went over to currency from money and it ended badly for them.

So the head of gold in the dream image represented not just Nebuchadnezzar but the entire Babylonian line of rullership.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “After you there will rise another kingdom.” (Daniel 2:39) A kingdom symbolised by the image’s breasts and arms of silver would succeed Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty. Some 200 years earlier, Isaiah had foretold this kingdom, even giving the name of its victorious king—Cyrus. (Isaiah 13:1-17; 21:2-9; 44:24–45:7, 13) This was the Medo-Persian Empire.

Some 60 years after interpreting the dream, Daniel witnessed the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, as they had their own version of what the world is going through at the time of writing, their own little Babylonian financial crisis due to expanded currency supplies. Daniel was present on the night of October 5/6, 539 B.C.E., when the Medo-Persian army took seemingly impregnable Babylon and executed King Belshazzar. With the death of Belshazzar, the golden head of the dream image—the Babylonian Empire—ceased to exist.


So after Babylon the world power was Medo-Persia. There is ample proof that they went back to using silver as money. I have been researching for a while when and how they went from using real money to issuing and using currency but historians do not always agree on this. However what we do know is that Alexander the Great by force formed an international new monetary system 2300 years ago when he conquered the Medo-Persian empire and imposed his own monetary system, based on gold and silver. * This indicates that before the fall of the then world power Medo-Persia, the world was using currency not money as a global financial system. But as I said there is ample proof that they started off using silver as money not currency.

So how could Alexander the great go back to silver money, if they were already using gold and silver? The answer is they (Medo-Persia) had gone over to currency and expanded the supply to the point where people lost faith in it. As always it ended badly for them.

By now it is easy to see the pattern developing. A world power starts using money and then fools its people into thinking currency is as good as money which ends badly for them.

The last of the kings on the throne of the Persian Empire was Darius III. His reign ended abruptly in 331 B.C.E. when he suffered a terrible defeat by Alexander the Great at Gaugamela, near ancient Nineveh. This defeat ended the Medo-Persian World Power as symbolised by the silver part of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The power to come was superior in some ways, yet inferior in others. This becomes clear as we listen to Daniel’s further interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the belly and thighs of the immense image constituted “another kingdom, a third one, of copper, that [would] rule over the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:32, 39) This third kingdom would follow Babylonia and Medo-Persia. As copper is inferior to silver, this new world power would be inferior to Medo-Persia in some ways. However, the copperlike kingdom would “rule over the whole earth,” indicating that it would be more extensive than either Babylonia or Medo-Persia. What do the facts of history bear out about this world power?

After the victory at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great went on to take the Persian capitals Babylon, and others. Subduing the rest of the Persian Empire, he extended his conquests into western India. As Daniel had foretold, the copper kingdom ‘ruled over the whole earth.’

If you have studied history you will know that ancient Greece was considered one of the great civilisations of all time. So what happened why did such a great world power fall? The answer lies in the same pattern we have see time and again.

As we have said when Greece became the dominant world power they went back to using money as money rather than currency, how long would it last this time? Well they really flourished under this new monetary system. As Mike Maloney says in his book about monetary history "Then they got involved with a war that turned out to be far longer and more costly than they thought (sound familiar?). After many years of war and most of their money spent the Greeks came up with a very clever way to continue funding the war. It was the same thing that led to the demise of every major world power we have looked at up to this time. They began to debase their money into currency to pay for the war. They discovered if you take 1000 silver coins in taxes and then mix in 50% copper you can then spend 2000 coins. Does it sound familiar? Maybe not as bad as issuing 2 animal skins for every 1 silver coin, but its very similar to what the previous world powers did."

This was now a government currency that you could buy gold and silver with, but the currency supply was no longer gold and silver in and of themselves. And as a consequence this currency became practically worthless. It's very interesting the Bible chose copper to represent Greece as the next world power when they were the first to use copper to debase their currency. But obviously once the public woke up to the abuse of money and the currency debasement anyone who held on to their old silver coins found they were worth a lot lot more than the same face value 50% copper coins. This once again ended badly, within a short time of going off money and onto currency they eventually became nothing more than a province of the next great world power that had been prophesied in Daniels time...... Rome.

Daniel continued his explanation of the dream image: “As for the fourth kingdom [after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece (not including Egypt and Assiria)], it will prove to be strong like iron. Forasmuch as iron is crushing and grinding everything else, so, like iron that shatters, it will crush and shatter even all these.” (Daniel 2:40) In its strength and ability to crush, this world power would be like iron—stronger than the empires represented by gold, silver, or copper. The Roman Empire was such a power. Rome crushed and shattered the Grecian Empire and swallowed up remnants of the Medo-Persian and Babylonian world powers.

Lets look at how the Rome empire fell.

To quote Mike Maloney again.

"Rome just as every empire in history never learned from the mistakes of past empires. Over the many years of Roman leaders various leaders inflated the Roman currency supply by debasing the coinage and issuing more paper receipts than they held real money gold and silver. All this led to one of the worlds first known about hyper inflation's. At one time a pound of gold was worth 50,000 Denari in the year AD 301, but 50 years later it was worth 2.2 billion denari. It had risen 42,400 times in 5 decades. In modern times to compare, 50 years ago gold was $35 an ounce if it rose the same amount in the same time period it would today be worth over $1.5 million an ounce. If a an average new car sold for about $2000 50 years ago which they did, the average new car today would sell for $85 million."

In the end it was currency debasement that brought down the Roman empire. Just like every empire throughout history it thought it could go from money to currency and get away with it. As you can see debasing currency is a pattern that repeats throughout history. It is a pattern that always ends badly.

As Chris Duane brings out in his truth never told and silver bullet silver shield series of video's "When the Barbarians were at the gates of Rome they gave them the choice of paying 1 ton of silver and they would not sack Rome. As Chris says The Romans either would not or could not come up with 1 ton of silver, I think it was the latter. But they could offer a lot of currency to the barbarians which of course was almost worthless hence the barbarians sacking Rome and leading to an end to the great Roman world power.



But the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image pictured not only the Roman Empire but also its political outgrowth. Consider these words we have already looked at recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The sixth—the Roman Empire—was still in power. But it also was to fall, and the seventh king would arise from one of Rome’s captured territories. What world power would that be? Britain was once a northwestern part of the Roman Empire. But by the year 1763, it had become the British Empire—the Britannia that ruled the seven seas. By 1776 its 13 American colonies had declared their independence in order to set up the United States of America. In later years, however, Britain and the United States became partners and have been ever since. Thus, the Anglo-American combination came into existence as the seventh world power of Bible prophecy. Like the Roman Empire, it has proved to be “strong like iron,” exercising ironlike authority. The iron legs of the dream image thus include both the Roman Empire and the Anglo-American dual world power.

We can learn from the way Daniel described the metal image that the Anglo-American world power would come from Rome, not conquer Rome. Daniel said the iron starts in the legs and continues to the feet and toes. In the feet and toes the iron is mixed with clay. This clay that is mixed in with the iron means people within the Anglo-American world power. Over the years this clay or what are commonly referred to as the globalist Elite has been the ones telling governments what to do. They have in the past been on record as saying things like "give me control of the currency supply and I care not who is in government."






So the 7 kings prophesied in Revelation are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, then Rome then British-American world powers.


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It has to be said that these 7 dominant world powers does not include every world power through out history. But I feel it does include the main ones. Most others if not almost all dominant world powers through out history went through these stages of the monetary cycle that ended badly for them. For example Genghis Kain's reign went far further than Alexander the greats. But his dominant world power only lasted a few generations unlike the 7 main ones I looked at. But even his and subsequent Khan's (Chinese ruler) went through the monetary cycle, there is a famous quote that has survived until this day. "The great Khan (Chinese ruler), causes the bark of trees, made into something like paper, to pass for money all over his country." It's well worth repeating for emphasis that many things have been used as currency but only gold and silver are money in and of themselves.

So we have just looked at seven of the dominant world powers of history. As I just said there have been many many more dominant world powers and less dominant world powers. It is a fascinanting subject to study, if you want to look at monetary history.

[Agent47]

(06-24-2012 07:35 AM)Silver2damoon Wrote:  Monetary history


I would like to start at the very beginning of monetary history, because its a very good place to start. So when do you think was the earliest ever recorded financial transaction where the unit of account and the means of exchange was recorded? And what was the first ever unit of account mentioned? Interestingly it is silver that is first mentioned not gold, it is in Gen 13:2 Where Abraham was heavily stocked with silver and gold. This was not really a financial transaction as such but a good indication of what was being used as money. A few chapters later in 17:13,22 and 23 mentions purchasing with money, well what was being used as money here? What was being used as money at this time? Chapter 20:16 tells us about 1000 silver pieces of money.
Then Abraham in chapter 23 first of all in v9 got silver ready for a burial place for his wife. Then in v13,15 and 16 he weighed out the required amount of silver to bury his beloved wife Sarah. He paid for her funeral with silver, this was the first earliest ever recorded financial transaction.
Now most of this book is based on solid facts that can be verified. Like the very first mention of money/silver in recorded history. Some of it will be my opinion based on sound reasoning which is this next bit, I am going to say that silver was most probably being used as money long before this first ever recorded example. There are several accounts of carrying on in business, and most importantly accounts saying they were buying and selling long before Abraham's first recorded financial transaction. But the first ever record of the unit of account is later as already mentioned. The account's from before did not say bartering as means of exchange it said buying and selling so there must have been a unit of account, even if it wasn't recorded. This is not proof alone of my theory that silver was being used as money but further sound reasoning to support my theory comes from Genesis 4:22 where they were mining copper and iron and other metals to make tools. Why is this so interesting? Well silver has a lower melting point than iron and some of these other metals they were refining. Also silver is many times a by-product of mining copper and iron and other metals. So there was a good chance they did have silver at these times 1000yrs before the first ever recorded financial transaction I mentioned, and the point I am making in this book is that silver is nearly always the money of last resort but also the money of first resort as well.

So that was the very beginning of monetary history, we are not sure the exact time but my theory is long before Abraham. But human history did not start that long before Abraham because he was born only 2 years after Noah died and Noah was born not long after the first man ever Adam, died. So we are talking about very early on right at the start of humans being on the Earth. No doubt about it silver was money when we get up to Abraham's time period, and who was the dominant world power at this time? The first ever major dominant world power on the scene was Ancient Egypt. There is much evidence that silver was being used as money for a long time during Egypt's dominance on the Earth. Joseph who was sold by his jealous brothers as a slave to Egypt two generations after Abraham. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, most probably these were silver ingots. When his brothers years later came to Egypt to buy food during the famine they paid with silver. But towards the end of the reign of Pharaoh's the monetary cycle that has repeated throughout all known history began to make its presence. The people were deceived and convinced to use something other than gold and silver as a means of exchange and a unit of account. At first the imported gold and silver pieces were used by the Egyptians as precious metal of standardised weight in ingots rather than coins. Then other things were introduced as a promise to pay with silver. To start with in the monetary cycle when some form of currency is introduced a temporary prosperity or false boom happens. To understand this false boom part of the monetary cycle, think of a business who is borrowing twice as much as they have profit every month. For as long as the bank foolishly keeps lending them funds every month they will look like they are booming but it is a false boom and can not last. This happened in ancient Egypt they became by far the wealthiest nation ever to exist on Earth up until this time, all because of expanding their currency supply and people believing it is worth the same as gold and silver. But the monetary cycle is very consistent and after the false boom which can vary in length, come the feeling that something is wrong with the expanding currency and then the slowly losing faith in the currency that has replaced gold and silver. Maybe you are feeling that way about the expanding currency supply in the world right now.

According to wilipedia Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred thousands of years BC. Originally money was gold and silver ingots. Then a form of receipt, representing gold and silver in storage in Ancient Egypt replaced the ingots.
This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, formed the basis of trade in Ancient Egypt. After gold and silver were replaced with currency though it is not known everything that functioned as a currency to facilitate exchanges, but before Egypt went over to currency it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of silver, functioned as the medium of exchange. Then grain, salt as already stated and other things functioned as currency. Remember anything at all other than gold and silver used as a medium of exchange is currency only gold and silver are at all times money in and of themselves.
Many Egyptologist's and historians speculate that many other things were used as currency at this time which replaced gold and silver ingots as means of exchange.
This, one of the first cases of using something other than gold and silver, ended badly for the once great Egyptian world power, and the rise of the next great power on the scene Ancient Assyria. The monetary cycle repeated as it always has and gold and silver revalued to account for all the currency that had been added to the supply. The currency also revalued to its true value. Assyria went back to using gold and silver, thus monetary precious metals did their first accounting and revalued to account for all the currency that had been added to supply. You could say one of the first hyperinflations. The currency goes to its true value of almost nothing and gold and silver value to their true value.

Consider these words recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Rome was the world power at the time of writing and the Anglo-American world power was the seventh.

We have looked at Egypt, now lets look at the other world powers of Bible prophecy.

So After Egypt Gold and silver started off again as the dominant forms of means of exchange in Assyria, which were used as common denominators of value. Barley, salt again and other forms of currency however, slowly replaced money.

Thus the monetary cycle started to repeat and the people started using currency (anything other than gold and silver) as a means of exchange. This once again brought great prosperity to ancient Assyria, but as we now know it was what I call a false boom. Eventually the currency supply is expanded more and more, until the general feeling is something is wrong. The free market and the will of the public bid up the price of forgotten gold and silver to meet the currency supply. Whenever this happens it always ends badly for the nation who issued the currency.


While thinking about monetary history the Bible gives an incredible account of some of the world powers “In the second year of the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar,” wrote the prophet Daniel, “Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit began to feel agitated, and his very sleep was made to be something beyond him.” (Daniel 2:1) The dreamer was Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire. He had effectively become world ruler. The following day Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “There exists a God in the heavens who is a Revealer of secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what is to occur in the final part of the days.” Daniel was ready to reveal not only the future of the Babylonian Empire but an outline of world events from Nebuchadnezzar’s day to our time and beyond.—Daniel 2:24-30.

(The prophetic dream has been well written about, but I am looking at it from a world monetary history point of view. If you want to learn more about the more important aspects of the prophecy I suggest the Daniel's Prophecy book published by JW.org.)

Nebuchadnezzar listened intently as Daniel explained: “You, O king, happened to be beholding, and, look! a certain immense image. That image, which was large and the brightness of which was extraordinary, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was dreadful. As regards that image, its head was of good gold, its breasts and its arms were of silver, its belly and its thighs were of copper, its legs were of iron." Daniel next declared: “This is the dream, and its interpretation.”—Daniel 2:36. “You, O king, the king of kings, you yourself are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:37, 38) The successive world powers represented by the metallic parts of the image could now exercise world domination. Lets look at them one at a time a what led to their demise as world powers.

-

Lets go back to the start again, Before money was invented, people traded, using a barter system. They exchanged goods and services of equal value. Traders using barter eventually saw the need for a more convenient commodity that could be used to buy and sell goods. The solution was to use precious metals such as gold and silver coins and ingots to buy goods and services.
For example as already said the earliest recorded example was right at the start of the Bible when Abraham bought a burial site for his beloved wife Sarah he weighed out the required amount of silver.-Genesis 23:14-16
Silver was almost certainly money long before this first recorded example. The first coins and ingots were likely minted in Lydia (modern-day Turkey) sometime even 1000's of years before Christ. Metal workers in various countries were soon mass producing silver coins and people throughout the lands mentioned in the Bible began using them.
As well as traders another group who handled money were the bankers. They devised saving systems, made loans, and paid out interest to those who invested in the bank. Jesus referred to these bankers in an illustration about slaves who were given various amounts of money with which to do business.-Matthew 25:26,27
As silver coins and ingots could be heavy and cumbersome these bankers soon devised ways of holding onto peoples silver money and issuing currency in place. Lots of things have been used as currency throughout history like shells, sticks and of course paper but only gold and silver are money.

Apparently by Nimrod’s time (Nimrod was Noah's great grandson so soon after the flood c. 2270 B.C.E.), the basis for such a system was largely in place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that “from the third millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks.” The main money used was silver bullion known as a Shekel. For bigger purchases they used the Mine = 0,5 KG silver (60 Shekel)
Talent = 30 KG silver. For smaller purchases the Korn / Gran =44 mg silver Sekel = 8 mg silver. Here is the interesting bit according to some historians they in time started issuing written checks or receipts for stored silver (carved on on plates or written on animal skins) with same personal details as checks today (Amount, quantity, date, name etc). The Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar—the original name for what was later called Babylonia—carried on “a surprisingly complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and providing letters of credit.” Or in simple terms confusing the people about what is money and currency and getting them to think currency was as good money. Then those with the power to write on animal skins "this is worth one ounce of silver" could literally create as much wealth as they wanted. As long the people were fooled into believing it was worth one oz of silver then they could spend as many animal skins as they could create, i.e far more than there were ounces of silver in existence.

Commercial activities in Nimrod’s day are not directly referred to in the Bible. Yet, expressions found in its first book, such as “to buy,” “to sell,” and “carry on business,” indicate that at least a few hundred years later, commercial activities were commonplace.—See Genesis 25:31; 34:10, 21; 39:1; 41:56, 57.

So we are up to Babylon the 3rd world power after Egypt and Assyria.

It is true that for a prolonged period of time, cuneiform texts are silent with respect to commercial activities in Babylonian society. Admitting that this is difficult to explain, the book Ancient Mesopotamia nevertheless concludes that “one cannot assume that trade relations ceased through that millennium, especially since they are known to have flourished greatly in the subsequent period.” This work suggests that at that time trade may have rested mainly in Aramaic hands and that papyrus and leather (animal skins the first forms of paper) were used as writing materials as well as currency. These have not been preserved through the ages like the cuneiform tablets that can be seen in the British museum. All we know is that the once mighty Babylon was sacked in 539 B.C.E. If any of these animal skins had been preserved through the ages I wonder if there would have been evidence that because animal skins were increasing in quantity at such a rate the people began losing confidence in them. Babylon experienced the knock out blow of worthless currency and the once again won battle between currency and real money gold and silver? I put forth one theory that could have possibly been the case. As as happened many times throughout history most recently in Zimbabwe under president Mugabe the soldiers began to lose faith in the currency no matter how much they were paid. So thinking of Babylon why were there no lookouts or guards who would have noticed Cyrus armies and why were the gates left open? It's only a theory, but what is fact is that Babylon went over to currency from money and it ended badly for them.

So the head of gold in the dream image represented not just Nebuchadnezzar but the entire Babylonian line of rullership.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “After you there will rise another kingdom.” (Daniel 2:39) A kingdom symbolised by the image’s breasts and arms of silver would succeed Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty. Some 200 years earlier, Isaiah had foretold this kingdom, even giving the name of its victorious king—Cyrus. (Isaiah 13:1-17; 21:2-9; 44:24–45:7, 13) This was the Medo-Persian Empire.

Some 60 years after interpreting the dream, Daniel witnessed the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, as they had their own version of what the world is going through at the time of writing, their own little Babylonian financial crisis due to expanded currency supplies. Daniel was present on the night of October 5/6, 539 B.C.E., when the Medo-Persian army took seemingly impregnable Babylon and executed King Belshazzar. With the death of Belshazzar, the golden head of the dream image—the Babylonian Empire—ceased to exist.


So after Babylon the world power was Medo-Persia. There is ample proof that they went back to using silver as money. I have been researching for a while when and how they went from using real money to issuing and using currency but historians do not always agree on this. However what we do know is that Alexander the Great by force formed an international new monetary system 2300 years ago when he conquered the Medo-Persian empire and imposed his own monetary system, based on gold and silver. * This indicates that before the fall of the then world power Medo-Persia, the world was using currency not money as a global financial system. But as I said there is ample proof that they started off using silver as money not currency.

So how could Alexander the great go back to silver money, if they were already using gold and silver? The answer is they (Medo-Persia) had gone over to currency and expanded the supply to the point where people lost faith in it. As always it ended badly for them.

By now it is easy to see the pattern developing. A world power starts using money and then fools its people into thinking currency is as good as money which ends badly for them.

The last of the kings on the throne of the Persian Empire was Darius III. His reign ended abruptly in 331 B.C.E. when he suffered a terrible defeat by Alexander the Great at Gaugamela, near ancient Nineveh. This defeat ended the Medo-Persian World Power as symbolised by the silver part of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The power to come was superior in some ways, yet inferior in others. This becomes clear as we listen to Daniel’s further interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the belly and thighs of the immense image constituted “another kingdom, a third one, of copper, that [would] rule over the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:32, 39) This third kingdom would follow Babylonia and Medo-Persia. As copper is inferior to silver, this new world power would be inferior to Medo-Persia in some ways. However, the copperlike kingdom would “rule over the whole earth,” indicating that it would be more extensive than either Babylonia or Medo-Persia. What do the facts of history bear out about this world power?

After the victory at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great went on to take the Persian capitals Babylon, and others. Subduing the rest of the Persian Empire, he extended his conquests into western India. As Daniel had foretold, the copper kingdom ‘ruled over the whole earth.’

If you have studied history you will know that ancient Greece was considered one of the great civilisations of all time. So what happened why did such a great world power fall? The answer lies in the same pattern we have see time and again.

As we have said when Greece became the dominant world power they went back to using money as money rather than currency, how long would it last this time? Well they really flourished under this new monetary system. As Mike Maloney says in his book about monetary history "Then they got involved with a war that turned out to be far longer and more costly than they thought (sound familiar?). After many years of war and most of their money spent the Greeks came up with a very clever way to continue funding the war. It was the same thing that led to the demise of every major world power we have looked at up to this time. They began to debase their money into currency to pay for the war. They discovered if you take 1000 silver coins in taxes and then mix in 50% copper you can then spend 2000 coins. Does it sound familiar? Maybe not as bad as issuing 2 animal skins for every 1 silver coin, but its very similar to what the previous world powers did."

This was now a government currency that you could buy gold and silver with, but the currency supply was no longer gold and silver in and of themselves. And as a consequence this currency became practically worthless. It's very interesting the Bible chose copper to represent Greece as the next world power when they were the first to use copper to debase their currency. But obviously once the public woke up to the abuse of money and the currency debasement anyone who held on to their old silver coins found they were worth a lot lot more than the same face value 50% copper coins. This once again ended badly, within a short time of going off money and onto currency they eventually became nothing more than a province of the next great world power that had been prophesied in Daniels time...... Rome.

Daniel continued his explanation of the dream image: “As for the fourth kingdom [after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece (not including Egypt and Assiria)], it will prove to be strong like iron. Forasmuch as iron is crushing and grinding everything else, so, like iron that shatters, it will crush and shatter even all these.” (Daniel 2:40) In its strength and ability to crush, this world power would be like iron—stronger than the empires represented by gold, silver, or copper. The Roman Empire was such a power. Rome crushed and shattered the Grecian Empire and swallowed up remnants of the Medo-Persian and Babylonian world powers.

Lets look at how the Rome empire fell.

To quote Mike Maloney again.

"Rome just as every empire in history never learned from the mistakes of past empires. Over the many years of Roman leaders various leaders inflated the Roman currency supply by debasing the coinage and issuing more paper receipts than they held real money gold and silver. All this led to one of the worlds first known about hyper inflation's. At one time a pound of gold was worth 50,000 Denari in the year AD 301, but 50 years later it was worth 2.2 billion denari. It had risen 42,400 times in 5 decades. In modern times to compare, 50 years ago gold was $35 an ounce if it rose the same amount in the same time period it would today be worth over $1.5 million an ounce. If a an average new car sold for about $2000 50 years ago which they did, the average new car today would sell for $85 million."

In the end it was currency debasement that brought down the Roman empire. Just like every empire throughout history it thought it could go from money to currency and get away with it. As you can see debasing currency is a pattern that repeats throughout history. It is a pattern that always ends badly.

As Chris Duane brings out in his truth never told and silver bullet silver shield series of video's "When the Barbarians were at the gates of Rome they gave them the choice of paying 1 ton of silver and they would not sack Rome. As Chris says The Romans either would not or could not come up with 1 ton of silver, I think it was the latter. But they could offer a lot of currency to the barbarians which of course was almost worthless hence the barbarians sacking Rome and leading to an end to the great Roman world power.



But the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image pictured not only the Roman Empire but also its political outgrowth. Consider these words we have already looked at recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The sixth—the Roman Empire—was still in power. But it also was to fall, and the seventh king would arise from one of Rome’s captured territories. What world power would that be? Britain was once a northwestern part of the Roman Empire. But by the year 1763, it had become the British Empire—the Britannia that ruled the seven seas. By 1776 its 13 American colonies had declared their independence in order to set up the United States of America. In later years, however, Britain and the United States became partners and have been ever since. Thus, the Anglo-American combination came into existence as the seventh world power of Bible prophecy. Like the Roman Empire, it has proved to be “strong like iron,” exercising ironlike authority. The iron legs of the dream image thus include both the Roman Empire and the Anglo-American dual world power.

We can learn from the way Daniel described the metal image that the Anglo-American world power would come from Rome, not conquer Rome. Daniel said the iron starts in the legs and continues to the feet and toes. In the feet and toes the iron is mixed with clay. This clay that is mixed in with the iron means people within the Anglo-American world power. Over the years this clay or what are commonly referred to as the globalist Elite has been the ones telling governments what to do. They have in the past been on record as saying things like "give me control of the currency supply and I care not who is in government."






So the 7 kings prophesied in Revelation are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, then Rome then British-American world powers.


-

It has to be said that these 7 dominant world powers does not include every world power through out history. But I feel it does include the main ones. Most others if not almost all dominant world powers through out history went through these stages of the monetary cycle that ended badly for them. For example Genghis Kain's reign went far further than Alexander the greats. But his dominant world power only lasted a few generations unlike the 7 main ones I looked at. But even his and subsequent Khan's (Chinese ruler) went through the monetary cycle, there is a famous quote that has survived until this day. "The great Khan (Chinese ruler), causes the bark of trees, made into something like paper, to pass for money all over his country." It's well worth repeating for emphasis that many things have been used as currency but only gold and silver are money in and of themselves.

So we have just looked at seven of the dominant world powers of history. As I just said there have been many many more dominant world powers and less dominant world powers. It is a fascinanting subject to study, if you want to look at monetary history.

Where did you get this about gold,silver and copper from the image representing these world powers?

The more I research and think about it, it makes perfect sense why God chose Gold for Babylon silver for Medo-Persia then copper for Greece because they were the first to debase their silver with copper.

[victor kruger]

I think you'll find god had absolutely nothing to do with the invention of using coinage as currency exchange, Metallic forms of currency are all about a measurable unit and reliable quality form of exchange trade. Logic and convenience would lead most civilisations to something that could be accurately measured and relied on, even more so the bigger the empire for continuity. You mess with the quality you debase the value.

The Bible in it's current form is really a creation of Emperor Constantine of the holy Roman empire since he is the one who commissioned it to be collected under one book, edited, parts left out, parts re-written, etc. There was not a bible per say prior to Constantine. There were various separate writings with nothing collected into one form. It's not like every hotel in Jerusalem had a bible on the night stand. Many books were written during the first 4 centuries after Jesus' crucifixion. Over time; divergence of opinion and also an inevitable power fight between ego's led to an inevitable split in doctrine between the different churches across the world.

Constantine was not however a scholar of religion; merely a political puppet master influencing the development of the early Roman church. Whilst there is no evidence if he did alter the bible and what parts; he would have been a key player in influencing the overall direction of the books selected for the final composition. Constantine was known as a shrewd politician and would have likely used such an opportunity to advance or secure or advance his own position or influence and certainly Romes.Rome wanted unity of religion within the empire to reassert hearts and minds control over it. It is probably this that moved Constantine as much as anything.

Use of coinage is also likely to go back far further than the records in the bible, unless your a 7 day evangelist then its already pointless going further because it all appeared in a week but in case your not..

There is this idea that what is written as bible excerpts are facts, actually there is nothing to substantiate it but tales and stories passed from mouth to mouth and often written down hundreds of years after a date. Interesting reading but hardly accurate.

There is so much in the bible that share legends with so many other cultures far far older and further afield nothing can be given as fact from it especially early timelines.

I also have this issue with your 7 powers, the Mongols held far more area and lasted longer than american has even been a world power. which has been barely 100 years, dont add anglo and american together it is totally separate.

How about others ?

Holy Roman Empire during the middle ages,not to be confused with the original Roman empire, for they were considered the “superpower” of their time. At it’s height, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of nearly all Europe Despite being relatively small in terms of Empires, its influence on the history of central Europe is still felt today. Incredibly the Empire lasted from the early middle ages ages to the 19th century

The Ottoman Empire spanned three continents. The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries.

Han Dynasty considered a golden age in Chinese history in terms of scientific achievement, technological advance, economic, cultural and political stability Spanning over 400 years.

British Empire.At it’s greatest extent, the British empire was known as the largest empire in history, approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. It has been dead since 1945 Other than when Britain OWNED the Americas there is NO anglo american empire nor does it exist other than in fairy tales and modern day press propaganda.

The Russian Empire was a state that existed for 200 years and the predecessor of the Soviet Union. It was the second largest contiguous empire in world history, surpassed only by the Mongol Empire.

Lets go not go older or we get to the likes of The Indus Valley Civilization Once inhabiting an area about the size of western Europe in what is now Pakistan and western India, the Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization thrived from 3300 to 1300 BC, although the area was settled all the way back to 7000 BC. Despite being one of the largest ancient civilizations, not much is known about the Harappan civilization as yet but they have found some form of metallic discs possibly coinage.

The point is the idea of your 7 kings is just made up especially one called Anglo American that has never even existed.There have been many great civilizations depending how you gauge them, most of which used some form of coinage

We havnt even gotton onto other empires of Africa or south Americas why not them ?

Very interesting bits and pieces there rolled in though thanks. Oh and whats with god choosing who used what ? thats a bit arrogant isnt it ? unless gods into metal trading, whats the fund called the JCF ?

[Agent47]

(11-18-2012 01:07 PM)victor kruger Wrote:  I think you'll find god had absolutely nothing to do with the invention of using coinage as currency exchange, Metallic forms of currency are all about a measurable unit and reliable quality form of exchange trade. Logic and convenience would lead most civilisations to something that could be accurately measured and relied on, even more so the bigger the empire for continuity. You mess with the quality you debase the value.

The Bible in it's current form is really a creation of Emperor Constantine of the holy Roman empire since he is the one who commissioned it to be collected under one book, edited, parts left out, parts re-written, etc. There was not a bible per say prior to Constantine. There were various separate writings with nothing collected into one form. It's not like every hotel in Jerusalem had a bible on the night stand. Many books were written during the first 4 centuries after Jesus' crucifixion. Over time; divergence of opinion and also an inevitable power fight between ego's led to an inevitable split in doctrine between the different churches across the world.

Constantine was not however a scholar of religion; merely a political puppet master influencing the development of the early Roman church. Whilst there is no evidence if he did alter the bible and what parts; he would have been a key player in influencing the overall direction of the books selected for the final composition. Constantine was known as a shrewd politician and would have likely used such an opportunity to advance or secure or advance his own position or influence and certainly Romes.Rome wanted unity of religion within the empire to reassert hearts and minds control over it. It is probably this that moved Constantine as much as anything.

Use of coinage is also likely to go back far further than the records in the bible, unless your a 7 day evangelist then its already pointless going further because it all appeared in a week but in case your not..

There is this idea that what is written as bible excerpts are facts, actually there is nothing to substantiate it but tales and stories passed from mouth to mouth and often written down hundreds of years after a date. Interesting reading but hardly accurate.

There is so much in the bible that share legends with so many other cultures far far older and further afield nothing can be given as fact from it especially early timelines.

I also have this issue with your 7 powers, the Mongols held far more area and lasted longer than american has even been a world power. which has been barely 100 years, dont add anglo and american together it is totally separate.

How about others ?

Holy Roman Empire during the middle ages,not to be confused with the original Roman empire, for they were considered the “superpower” of their time. At it’s height, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of nearly all Europe Despite being relatively small in terms of Empires, its influence on the history of central Europe is still felt today. Incredibly the Empire lasted from the early middle ages ages to the 19th century

The Ottoman Empire spanned three continents. The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries.

Han Dynasty considered a golden age in Chinese history in terms of scientific achievement, technological advance, economic, cultural and political stability Spanning over 400 years.

British Empire.At it’s greatest extent, the British empire was known as the largest empire in history, approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. It has been dead since 1945 Other than when Britain OWNED the Americas there is NO anglo american empire nor does it exist other than in fairy tales and modern day press propaganda.

The Russian Empire was a state that existed for 200 years and the predecessor of the Soviet Union. It was the second largest contiguous empire in world history, surpassed only by the Mongol Empire.

Lets go not go older or we get to the likes of The Indus Valley Civilization Once inhabiting an area about the size of western Europe in what is now Pakistan and western India, the Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization thrived from 3300 to 1300 BC, although the area was settled all the way back to 7000 BC. Despite being one of the largest ancient civilizations, not much is known about the Harappan civilization as yet but they have found some form of metallic discs possibly coinage.

The point is the idea of your 7 kings is just made up especially one called Anglo American that has never even existed.There have been many great civilizations depending how you gauge them, most of which used some form of coinage

We havnt even gotton onto other empires of Africa or south Americas why not them ?

Very interesting bits and pieces there rolled in though thanks. Oh and whats with god choosing who used what ? thats a bit arrogant isnt it ? unless gods into metal trading, whats the fund called the JCF ?

To be fair he does say in there that there have been many other empires but most of them went through the same thing starting off with money (gold and silver) then went over to currency (anything other than gold and silver) it usually ended badly every time.

That dream image does fit in well with those world powers. Too well really. How do we know the book of Daniel was not written after those world powers? If it could be proven it was written before then that would prove to me the Bible is authentic, because the dream image fits in so perfectly with how history played out. Too perfectly, the only conclusion is it must have been written after.

Is there any proof of when it was written?