npr:
There’s a tiny island called Yap out in the Pacific Ocean. Economists love it because it helps answer this really basic question: What is money?
There’s no gold or silver on Yap. But hundreds of years ago, explorers from Yap found limestone deposits on an island hundreds of miles away. And they carved this limestone into huge stone discs, which they brought back across the sea on their small bamboo boats.
Eventually, these discs became their currency. But as Planet Money explains, the people of Yap didn’t have to exchange these discs to make a transaction. Knowing that they simply existed was good enough.
Back in high school, one of my best friends and I were in a pre-calculus class and he couldn’t figure out how to calculate the answer to the question. Since the question was about calculating something to do with money, he decided to write an essay using a place like Yap as an example. This made my day.
