money-supply, goldI can see the value of grain and oxen and other consumer goods. And I realise that gold and silver look nice and that especially gold can be used to make nice jewelry, crowns and such. But since gold and silver have very little use apart from that, I do wonder why it came to be seen as valuable by people and finally valuable enough to be used as money.
I understand the first “money” used in the Europe/Asia neighbourhood was cattle. Words for money derive from words for cattle. Oxen represented wealth and could, presumably, be exchanged for other things. I could see why gold could be used as money if some tribal chief or king guaranteed that it could be exchanged for oxen (or grain). But apparently gold is perceived to have a value beyond that…
Is it solely because one expects other people to value gold as well? What reason does anybody have to value gold at all (apart from the little-useful jewelry attributes)?
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