Because the pieces of paper aren’t backed up by gold. If a piece of paper was just a token representing a piece of gold, then the price of gold (in pieces of paper) would never change.
Of course, you can’t eat gold either. There’s a very long chain of inference between actual use of things and the various exchanges (often theoretical) to get to a value. “value” is fundamentally what you’d give for a thing you don’t have or what other people will give you for a thing you do have. It’s not intrinsic to any good or currency.
Why is that weird? Instead of carrying gold around just carry these promising pieces of paper that guarantee value.
And everyone agreed. Probably not at first.
Because the pieces of paper aren’t backed up by gold. If a piece of paper was just a token representing a piece of gold, then the price of gold (in pieces of paper) would never change.
Of course, you can’t eat gold either. There’s a very long chain of inference between actual use of things and the various exchanges (often theoretical) to get to a value. “value” is fundamentally what you’d give for a thing you don’t have or what other people will give you for a thing you do have. It’s not intrinsic to any good or currency.
Food and Water seem valuable.