2026-05-06
56 分钟They would just come up with a plausible sounding name,
create a banknote that was beautiful and start issuing notes and people would accept them.
I mean, you know, what are you going to do?
Check every single note that comes across the store counter.
I mean, people tried, but it's kind of a fool's errand.
Today on the story of money.
Why can't we just print or issue our own money?
Well, in fact, people are.
Just think about cryptocurrencies.
But there was a point in history where actually pretty much anybody with a state banking license could in fact go
out and print a note in America and call it money.
And many did.
We're talking about the 19th century in America when the Federal Reserve, as we know it today, simply did not exist.
In fact, there wasn't even really a dollar.
And as a result, it was complete monetary chaos.
And there was also a time when people were creating money all over the place in a way that 's got a lot of lessons
for what we 're seeing today with digital currencies.
Yes, because amid all that 19th century monetary chaos, once upon a time in America, there was this.
Charismatic con man called James Brown.
And he was the hardest working man in counterfeiting.