Credit card

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Neil MacGregor's history of the world as told through things. Throughout this week he is examining objects that speak of the great shifts in human organisation and thinking in the modern world - objects that raise questions about human lives, the environment and global resources. So far this week he has chosen things that deal with political and sexual revolution and that confront the disaster of global arms proliferation. In today's episode he considers the morality of modern global finance and its implication for the future. He tells the story with a credit card that is compliant with Islamic Sharia law - what does that mean and how does it work? He talks to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and to Razi Fakih of the HSBC bank. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	If you asked anyone which 20th century invention had most impact on our daily lives today,
0:19.1	instant answers might include the mobile phone or the personal computer. I suspect not many people
0:25.0	would think first of the little plastic rectangles that fill our wallets and purses.
0:30.4	Yet since they emerged in the late 1950s, credit cards have become in every
0:35.8	sense part of the currency of life.
0:39.4	Bank credit is now for the first time in history, no longer the prerogative of the elite and maybe
0:45.9	as a result the long dormant religious and ethical debate about the use and abuse of
0:51.0	money has been reborn in the face of this ultimate symbol of triumphant
0:55.8	consumer culture.
0:57.0	Today's object, our penultimate in this history of the world through things is indeed a
1:09.6	credit card, but it's a slightly unusual one and it leads us to a perhaps unexpected
1:16.3	conclusion about the way our world now behaves and believes.
1:21.3	If everyone were able to make every transaction
1:25.0	through a credit card,
1:27.0	then would you actually need money in the conventional sense at all?
1:32.0	A history of the world... in the conventional sense at all.
1:47.0	A history of the world in a hundred objects. Credit card. issued in 2009 from the United Arab Emirates.
1:57.0	So far this week I've chosen objects with which to explore some of the key
2:07.5	elements of 20th century life and living, sex and human rights, revolution, war and the aftermath of war. It's now the turn of
2:17.0	that third great constant of human affairs, money. I couldn't finish this history of the world without going back to it.
2:25.0	It's featured throughout the series, from gold coins of the proverbially rich King Creas,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.