TED演讲:货币的未来(1)

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Let's start with a story about this culture that lived in Micronesia in the early 1900s, called the Yap. 我们先从一个20世纪早期的故事开始，这个故事发生在密克罗尼西亚联邦里一个叫做雅浦的小岛上。

Now, I want to tell you about the Yap because their form of money is really interesting. 我提到这个雅浦岛的原因是，他们使用的货币非常有趣。

They use these limestone¹ discs² called Rai stones. 他们使用的货币是由石灰岩凿刻出来的圆盘，称为“拉伊石币”。

Now, the Yap don't actually move these Rai stones around or exchange them the way we do with our coins, 不同于我们平时花钱的方式，雅浦人并不随身带着“拉伊”，也不像我们这样兑换硬币，

because Rai stones can get to be pretty massive³. The largest is about four tons and 12 feet across.  因为他们的“拉伊石币”实在太重了！最大的石币可重达4吨，直径达到3.6米。

So the Yap just keep track⁴ of who owns part of what stone. 所以雅浦人只是记录下谁拥有哪些石币的哪个部分。

There's a story about these sailors that were transporting a stone across the ocean when they ran into some trouble and the stone actually fell in. 有一个关于雅浦岛船员的故事，他们在运输一块石币回到岛上的途中，遇上海难而石沉大海。

Now the sailors got back to the main island and they told everyone what had happened. 当船员们回到岛上，把海上所发生的事告诉了大家。

And everyone decided⁵ that, actually, yes, the sailors had the stone and -- why not? -- it still counted. 最后大家一致决定，那些船员丢失的石币仍然是他们财产的一部分，他们确实拥有过那块石币，为什么不算数呢？

Even though it was at the bottom of the ocean, it was still part of the Yap economy⁶. 即使那块石币已经沉入海底，它仍然是雅浦经济的一部分。

Now you might think that this was just a small culture a hundred years ago.  你可能会觉得这只是一百多年前存在于一个小岛上的经济文化。

But things like this happen in the Western world as well, and the Yap actually still use a form of these stones. 但类似的经济文化也存在于欧洲，即使现如今，雅浦人也仍然把石币作为一种交易货币。

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