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- "When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is."
– Oscar Wilde
Currency is an Antiquity Age technology in Civilization VII.
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
Metals considered valuable by today's standards, such as gold and silver, often have little inherent worth outside our desire to exchange them. Fortunately, this "desire to exchange" is a very powerful social tool. For example, the "value" of a coat may be listed on its tag in the store, but it could be virtually worthless to those who already have a coat. Conversely, on a cold day, the value of that same coat might be much higher to those without proper attire. Even after the coat's value is determined, how does its owner extract that value from the product? One solution is to have a higher authority impart value to otherwise useless objects. For example, if I exchange a coat for several pieces of otherwise useless paper, I would need assurance that other people will take those pieces of paper in exchange for other goods and services. Currency, in other words, requires a kind of bank or outside authority that guarantees the value of its money.
In Mesopotamia, this bank was the temple, and the currency was a system of receipts that represented a particular amount of grain in storage. In China, paper money occupied a similar role. In these cases, political strife posed a risk – if temples were raided, then the currency became worthless. Over time, governments agreed that gold was a good medium of exchange, so currencies often referred to a quantity of that internationally-held (and rat-proof) gold in a central bank. Once this gold standard was abandoned, currency came to be defined as a share in the national project, with a value that did not relate to any material good but floated on the fortunes of the central industry.
See also[]
- Currency in other games
| Civilization VII Technologies [edit] | |
|---|---|
| Antiquity | Agriculture • Animal Husbandry • Bronze Working • Currency • Engineering • Iron Working • Irrigation • Masonry • Mathematics • Military Training • Navigation • Pottery • Sailing • The Wheel • Writing • Future Tech |
| Exploration | Architecture • Astronomy • Cartography • Castles • Education • Feudalism • Guilds • Gunpowder • Heraldry • Machinery • Metallurgy • Metal Casting • Shipbuilding • Urban Planning • Future Tech |
| Modern | Academics • Aerodynamics • Armor • Combustion • Electricity • Flight • Industrialization • Mass Production • Military Science • Mobilization • Nuclear Fission • Radio • Rocketry • Steam Engine • Urbanization • Future Tech |