The bead story in West Africa illustrates one of the most dangerous dynamics in monetary history. If you control the supply of the currency and can create it at low cost you can extract resources, labor and value from others without overt theft. The process is gradual, almost invisible, and often justified as legitimate trade. But structurally it functions like a leak in the economic hull.

This is why the parallel to government-issued fiat money is deliberate and worth thinking through. Inflation is the modern equivalent of Europeans manufacturing beads in bulk. Those closest to the money spigot acquire real goods and services first while everyone else pays later through reduced purchasing power. The historical examples strip away the technical jargon and show the human consequences over time impoverishment, dependency, and the steady erosion of autonomy.

Sound money is about more than financial theory. It is about whether value created by a society stays within it or is drained away by those with privileged access to the means of exchange....