Mystery Paper Ep01 - Ancient Merchant Paper (13min)
An introduction into the mysterious financial instruments that we spend our lives chasing, without really having any particular understanding of how they work.
Episode Contents
- 00:20 – What are these pieces of paper?
- 01:32 – [Series title card]
- 01:43 – ‘Official’ financial documents, or ancient financial instruments?
- 03:01 – 1990s credit card slips hint at their origin.
- 03:30 – Barcodes don’t ‘legitimise’ checks.
- 03:45 – Bills of Exchange acts all over the world.
- 03:56 – What are these bank notes promising, and why?
- 04:36 – [Episode 1 title card]
- 04:42 – Mercantile origins of financial instruments.
- 05:29 – The Law Merchant (Lex Mercatoria) introduced.
- 06:05 – ‘Negotiable’ definition.
- 06:50 – Promissory note introduction.
- 07:25 – Promissory note demonstration.
- 10:56 – Money created by signatures.
- 12:02 – Canada defines money as including negotiable instruments.
- 12:35 – Tease introduction of Bills of Exchange.
Additional notes
An introduction into the mysterious financial instruments that we spend our lives chasing, without really having any particular understanding of how they work. It may appear that these debt instruments (bank notes, mortgage agreements, checks, credit card slips and so on) we see around us in various forms are strictly ‘official’ documents, which only ‘authorised’ institutions are allowed to issue, but is that really the case, or are perhaps we the ones participating and issuing these documents ourselves, while being none-the-wiser?
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