Gold

[Julian Assange]

> Yes, but what this thread has ignored is that gold (and other
> densely precious things) were valued *in and of themselves* and so 
> using them as money was not symbolic.  You traded your goat
> for a goat's worth of gold; if trust evaporated overnight
> the gold is still worth something.  Similarly with barrels
> of oil.  If you discover a lot of it under your topsoil, you
> get wealth because the substance itself has utility.

Gold has many industrial uses, but its value has historically
commanded a higher price not primarily because of its demand for
fillings or filters but for its demand as a currency, for which it
is naturally suited, being easily identifyable, measurable, divisible,
liquidifyable, transportable and of predictable supply.

If you trade gold for goats someone else is trading goats for gold.
They're almost certainly not buying fillings, but something that's
useful to them as a medium of exchange.

--
 Julian Assange        |If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people
                       |together to collect wood or assign them tasks and
 proff at iq.org          |work, but rather teach them to long for the endless
 proff at gnu.ai.mit.edu  |immensity of the sea. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery