Stanlake (Pg. 59) – Data Response Questions
(Tuesday 22nd September 2020)
SUGGESTED ANSWERS (BRIEF)
a) People wanting to save and those who are prepared to accept payment later may be uncertain
as to what items will be in demand in the future. It will also be difficult to make comparisons of
the value of different items (e.g. how many chickens are equivalent to one cow?).
b) Measure of value/Store of value/Standard of deferred payments (see PPT from previous day for
more details)
c) If you think about it, general characteristics of money include acceptability, portability,
durability, divisibility, and scarcity. Both stamps and salt are acceptable, durable, divisible and
scarce. However, whilst stamps are portable, salt can be very heavy to move around (in large
quantities)!
d) Obviously, the cost of making modern coins needs to be much lower than their face value,
otherwise people would melt down the metal, because it is more valuable than the face value of
the coins themselves.
e) Coins and bank notes no longer have any intrinsic value but they are universally acceptable. The
most important form of money in developed economies is now bank and building society
deposits. In the UK these deposits accounts for more than 90% of the money in circulation!