There was a time when a man would bite a coin to verify the quality of its metal. These days, of course, it would be unthinkable for anyone to bite a dollar note, even if that person knew that it had been printed on the orders of Mr. Bernanke. Or perhaps exactly because of that knowledge. He wouldn't bother.
I suspect that the reason why people developed that unhealthy practice is that very often, during the Middle Ages, kings would recall the coins in circulation, diminish the amount of gold in them, add more base metal to the alloy and throw them back in circulation. The exercise served a double purpose: it would cheapen the royal debt and impose a hidden tax on the subjects. As higher levels of inflation were usually the consequence, populations would often riot, for even a peasant is able to realise when he is being taken for a ride, unless he is unfortunate enough to have been born with only two eyes and digestive tube.
The best example of the situation to which I am alluding, in the Middle Ages, is the reign of Philip IV of France. Heavily indebted because of mindless expenditure, his initial plan involved expelling the Jews and seizing their property. When that proved insufficient for his needs, he went on to debase the currency. As, at that point, he still owed vast sums of money to the Knights Templar, he hatched a crafty plan to have them tried for heresy and burnt at the stake. In that way he managed to simultaneously wipe out the creditor and take possession of his property.
I'm sure Philip would have continued to create havoc, if he hadn't died exactly one year after he had ordered the execution of Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars. Legend has it that, at the stake, de Molay put a curse on him.
At school I leant that History does not repeat itself. Sometimes I wonder.
Take, for example, the case of Hugo Chávez. He has nationalised right, left and centre. He has debased the currency. He is now inventing a war against Colombia, under the cover of nationalism, but presumably to take control of the profitable drug trade. The only difference is perhaps that his peasants, all dressed up in red shirts, cheer him up. But then, it is also true that one cannot help having been born with only two brain cells.
It shows you. You must never underestimate a man. When I first saw Chávez on television, I thought he was just a puppet manipulated by an able ventriloquist. Now I realise that the man knows History backwards.
Yet, I ask: is there nobody that is prepared to put a curse on this bozo?
