Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Factory of Wealth


Interesting story at Archaeology (hat tip Roger) on recent uncovering of ancient Chinese ruins that look like a massive coin minting operation from 2,000 years ago.

Looks like they used the floor of the building as a giant mold system for casting coins.  And these historians are even on the right track in interpreting the effects of correctly operating this type of currency system:
"This mint," Liu says, "can help us tell the story of the booming Han economy."
Yes it can Dr. Liu!

Without the appropriate amount (billions) of these coins being made available for use in settlement and to satiate savings desires, the economy could not have "boomed".  And of course there is no evidence of the authorities"borrowing" them at all.

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