Monetary History part 2

It is a fact that this monetary cycle has been around for thousands of years
and it is key to understanding what is happening in the world
right now. It's basically the same process every single time that the cycle
repeats, because human nature hasn't changed. So we're always going to get
governments going over to currency from money then trying to inflate away
the currency out of greed and in order to stay in power so they can keep
spending when they run out of funds. And we're always going to see people
who actually figure it out early and act accordingly. You can be one of the
early smart ones who change your currency for money before the masses
rush to change their currency for real money. So we're in the same cycle and
now in the late-stage of the currency abuse again although most people, if
they don't feel it right now, they know something's wrong but they don't
completely put all the pieces together yet. But eventually they will and then
we'll go to the next stage which is the end of the con game, confidence is
lost in currency and everybody wants to change their currency for real
monetary precious metals. This has happened so many times through history
it is the exact same cycle we are going through today in the early 21st
century.
Many Egyptologist's and historians speculate that this first time the cycle
started, several other things were used as currency at this time which
replaced the money - gold and silver ingots as means of exchange.
This, one of the first known cases of using something other than gold and
silver, ended badly for the once great Egyptian world power, and led to the
rise of the next great power on the scene Ancient Assyria. The monetary
cycle repeated as it always has and gold and silver revalued to account for all
the currency that had been added to the supply. The currency also revalued
to its true value of almost nothing. Assyria who took over from Egypt as the
dominant world power went back to using newly revalued gold and silver,
thus monetary precious metals did their first accounting and revalued to
account for all the currency that had been added to supply. You could say one
of the first hyper inflation's. The currency goes to its true value of almost
nothing and gold and silver value to their true value.
Consider these words recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings:
five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive
he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words,
he was being held in exile by the Romans. The five fallen kings, or world
powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Rome was
the world power at the time of writing and the Anglo-American world power
was the seventh that was prophesied to remain a short while. We have looked at Egypt the first of the 7, now lets look at the other 6 world
powers of Bible prophecy from a monetary history point of view. Next after
Egypt came Assyria.
Assyria
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire that was the second great
dominant world power in recorded history after Egypt. In its heyday, Nineveh
may have been the largest city in the world. The Bible refers to it many times
as a great city. It was a vast metropolitan region that evidently included
several other cities. So a good question would be what was the means of
exchange and if there was one, what was the unit of account being used?
Assyriologist Archibald Henry Sayce says they used gold and silver ingots but
then other things were introduced as currency to replace monetary precious
metals. He describes the mighty empire after it went from money over to
currency this was the second time the monetary cycle repeated, he says it
"experienced a huge economic boom." It was what I call a false economic
boom due to expanding currency supplies and people believing they are
worth the same as gold and silver. Archibald says "Nineveh was a mighty city
with magnificent places and temples, broad streets, and massive walls."
How they went over to currency is unclear, but it is certain they started off
using money gold and silver after the Egyptian currency system expanded so
much that it brought down that Empire. When the next great Empire Assyria
first started issuing currency maybe people said no way, look what happened
to Egypt when they went from money over to currency we want to keep using
gold and silver as money! But the Assyrian Empire was most famous for its
cruelty. If they said from now you will use our currency for exchanges and not
gold and silver then if you ran a business back then you would do as you
were told. If you ever visit the British Museum and have a look at the Assyrian
section you will see the extent of their cruelty. One relief from Sennacherib's
palace depicts a torturer wrenching the tongue out of a prisoner who had
been pinned to the ground. People who did not do what they were told were
skinned or burned alive or reserved for a worse fate. So when businesses were told to use this new government issued currency
that is what people did out of fear. Price inflation is the result of expanding
currency supplies but governments have in times past tried price controls.
Assyriologist Archibald Henry Sayce describes how the Assyrian leaders tried
to curb inflation of their currency units with price controls even as they
expanded the supply. So those with the power to create and issue currency
become very wealthy but as they issue more and more currency there are
more units chasing the same amount of goods and services, prices want to
go up but it is illegal to put up prices and business owners were frightened of
breaking the law no matter how stupid the laws were. The initial boom from
going over to currency and expanding the supplies exponentially is doomed
to failure. In the end no matter how frightened business owners are they can
not afford to keep selling their goods for the low prices forced on them to try
to curb inflation, they will either go underground and create a black market
selling goods for fair value in relation to the expanded currency supply or go
out of business or try and run away, maybe run their business far away and
accept gold and silver as payment even though it would be breaking the law.
Whatever else may happen expanding currency supplies exponentially
always ends badly. Manipulations never last forever. Price controls never
work. Forcing people to use your currency never works, the free market
always wins in the end. This was what brought an end to the Assyrian empire
the 2nd dominant world power in history.
Today some say the petro-dollar is backed by the Anglo American world
power's military. Same thing happens every time this monetary cycle repeats.
Similar to the other dominant world powers like the Assyrian world power
using fear to try to force people to use their currency alone as a means of
exchange as they expand the supplies and spend it on what they like. But the
free market always wins in the end.
The current dominant world power Anglo America is trying to force the
continued use of the petro-dollar for world trade, but the world is slowly repudiating it. Saddam tried selling oil for gold they went in and killed him,
then Gaddafi tried the same thing and the same thing happened. Now Iran is
turning its back on the petro-dollar and selling oil for gold, the Anglo
American world power is looking for every way possible to go to war but the
rest of the world will not stand by and let it happen so easily as last times.
So a quick review, after Egypt the monetary cycle going from money to
currency and back again started. Then Gold and silver started off again as the
dominant forms of means of exchange in the world dominated by Assyria,
which were used as common denominators of value. Then barley, salt again
and other forms of currency even shells however, slowly replaced money.
Other things were also made into currency and spent on whatever they liked
by the currency creators.
Thus the monetary cycle started to repeat and the people started using
currency (anything other than gold and silver) as a means of exchange. This
once again to start with brought great prosperity to ancient Assyria, for as
long as confidence is in the currency, but as we now know it was what I call a
false boom because it is a con game. Eventually confidence is slowly lost as
the currency supply is expanded more and more, until the general feeling is
something is wrong. Eventually again the free market and the will of the
public bid up the price of forgotten gold and silver to meet the currency
supply as the con game comes to an end and confidence is lost in the
expanding supplies of currency. Even if its on the black market and no mater
how frightened the populace is, gold and silver are used underground if its
illegal to use gold and silver as it has been many times in history and could
be again in the future. This cycle still happens its natural. The cruel Assyrians
could not stop the natural monetary cycle from repeating with price controls
and other manipulations, no matter how much fear they instilled. Whenever
this happens it always ends badly for the nation who issued the currency. This
once again proved true for ancient Assyria.
Babylon
It was around this time just after Assyria's decline as the dominant world
power due to the monetary cycle repeating that the Bible gives an incredible
account of some of these world powers “In the second year of the kingship of
Nebuchadnezzar,” wrote the prophet Daniel, “Nebuchadnezzar dreamed
dreams; and his spirit began to feel agitated, and his very sleep was made to
be something beyond him.” (Daniel 2:1) The dreamer was Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of the Babylonian Empire. He had effectively become world ruler
with the decline of the Assyrian empire. The following day Daniel told
Nebuchadnezzar: “There exists a God in the heavens who is a Revealer of secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what is to occur in
the final part of the days.” Daniel was ready to reveal not only the future of
the Babylonian Empire but an outline of world events from Nebuchadnezzar’s
day to our time and beyond.—Daniel 2:24-30.
(The prophetic dream has been well written about, but I am looking at it ONLY
from a world monetary history point of view. If you want to learn more about
the more important aspects of the prophecy I suggest the Daniel's Prophecy
book published by JW.org.)
Nebuchadnezzar listened intently as Daniel explained: “You, O king,
happened to be beholding, and, look! a certain immense image. That image,
which was large and the brightness of which was extraordinary, was standing
in front of you, and its appearance was dreadful. As regards that image, its
head was of good gold, its breasts and its arms were of silver, its belly and its
thighs were of copper, its legs were of iron." Daniel next declared: “This is the
dream, and its interpretation.”—Daniel 2:36. “You, O king, the king of kings,
you yourself are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:37, 38) The successive world
powers represented by the metallic parts of the image could now exercise
world domination. Lets look at them one at a time and what led to their
demise as world powers.
Lets go back to the start again by way of review before money was invented
people traded using a barter system. They exchanged goods and services of
equal value. Traders using barter eventually saw the need for a more
convenient commodity that could be used to buy and sell goods. The solution
was to use precious metals such as gold and silver coins and ingots to buy
goods and services.
For example as already said the earliest recorded example was right at the start of the Bible when Abraham bought a burial site for his beloved wife
Sarah he weighed out the required amount of silver.-Genesis 23:14-16
Silver was almost certainly money long before this first recorded example.
The first coins rather than ingots were likely minted in Lydia (modern-day
Turkey) sometime even 1000's of years before Christ. So before silver coins it
was small silver ingots that were used as money for thousands of years
before this. Metal workers in various countries were soon mass producing
silver coins and bars people throughout the lands mentioned in the Bible
began using them.
As well as traders another group who handled money were the bankers, of
each dominant world power. They devised saving systems, made loans, and
paid out interest to those who invested in the bank. Jesus referred to these
bankers in an illustration about slaves who were given various amounts of
money with which to do business.-Matthew 25:26,27
As silver coins and ingots were supposedly (so said the bankers) heavy and
cumbersome these bankers soon devised ways of holding onto peoples silver
money and issuing currency in place. Lots of things have been used as
currency throughout history like shells, sticks and of course paper but only
gold and silver are money.
Apparently by Nimrod’s time, the basis for such a system was largely in
place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that “from the third
millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations
of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of
goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular
weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks.”
The main money used was silver bullion known as a Shekel 11.4g of silver.
This was 12hrs 1days wage. For bigger purchases they used the Mina which
was 50 Shekels 570g of silver. Or for very big purchases the Talent = 30 KG
silver was 60minas about 19 years wages. For smaller purchases the Gerah
which was a tiny 0.57g of silver. Or 10 Gerahs about 5.7g of silver was called
a Bekah and 2 Bekahs were a Shekel. There was also a Pim which was
7.8grams of silver. But these values have differed from time to time over the
millenniums. A couple of thousands years later the world was still valuing
things in silver Minas and Talents but the amount of silver needed was less.
Silver goes up in value through history (with the exception of the last hundred
years or so). By the time of Greek and Roman money you only needed 340g
or 10.9 Troy ounces to pay for something costing a mina when it used to be
570g or 18.35Tozof silver. A talent which was 60 Mina was now only 20KG not
the previous 30KG. It was still about 19yrs wages but it took 10KG less silver
because the silver was worth more. So average wages were less silver per day. For the first few thousand years of history a shekel was an average days
wage 11.4g of silver but silver slowly increased in value over thousands of
years by the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries average days wages all around
the world were just under 3grams or a 10th of a ozT which was the average
days wage through history.
Here is the interesting bit according to some historians they in time (ancient
Babylon) started issuing written cheques or receipts for stored silver (carved
on plates or written on animal skins the first ever 'paper currency') with same
personal details as cheques today (Amount, quantity, date, name etc). The
Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar—the
original name for what was later called Babylonia—carried on “a surprisingly
complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and
providing letters of credit, on animal skins.” Or in simple terms confusing the
people about what is money and currency and getting them to think currency
was as good money. Then those with the power to write on animal skins "this
is worth one ounce of silver" could literally create as much wealth as they
wanted. As long the people were fooled into believing it was worth one oz of
silver then they could spend as many animal skins as they could create, i.e
far more than there were ounces of silver in existence. Again it is a con game.
It is all about confidence every time the monetary cycle repeats.
Commercial activities in Nimrod’s day are not directly referred to in the Bible.
Yet, expressions found in its first book, such as “to buy,” “to sell,” and “carry
on business,” indicate that at least a few hundred years later, commercial
activities were commonplace.—See Genesis 25:31; 34:10, 21; 39:1; 41:56,

So we are up to Babylon the 3rd dominant world power after Egypt and
Assyria.
It is true that for a prolonged period of time, cuneiform texts are silent with
respect to commercial activities in Babylonian society. Admitting that this is
difficult to explain, the book Ancient Mesopotamia nevertheless concludes
that “one cannot assume that trade relations ceased through that
millennium, especially since they are known to have flourished greatly in the
subsequent period.” This work suggests that at that time trade may have
rested mainly in Aramaic hands and that papyrus and leather (animal skins
the first EVER forms of paper currency) were used as writing materials as well
as using as a form of currency. Maybe one of the first EVER forms of paper
currency made from animal skins. Amazing that today the world is
accustomed to using paper as currency. These first ever examples of paper
currency have not been preserved through the ages like the cuneiform
tablets that can be seen in the British museum. All we know is that the once mighty Babylon was sacked in 539 B.C.E. If any
of these animal skins had been preserved through the ages I wonder if there
would have been evidence that because animal skins were increasing in
quantity at such a rate more than the banks held real money gold and silver,
the people began losing confidence in them. The con game always comes to
an end. Babylon experienced the knock out blow of currency (anything used
as a medium of exchange that is not gold or silver) and the once again easily
won battle between currency and real money gold and silver repeated.
So the head of gold in the dream image represented not just Nebuchadnezzar
but the entire Babylonian line of rulership. Gold was fitting to represent the
Babylonian dominant world power as they started of using gold as well as
silver money until they could not fund the very costly war and the cycle
repeated so they got the people to have confidence in and use paper
currency which they expanded the supply to pay for the war.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “After you there will rise another kingdom.”
(Daniel 2:39) A kingdom symbolised by the image’s breasts and arms of
silver would succeed Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty. Some 200 years earlier,
Isaiah had fore told this kingdom, even giving the name of its victorious king
—Cyrus. (Isaiah 13:1-17; 21:2-9; 44:24–45:7, 13) This was the Medo-Persian
Empire.
Some 60 years after interpreting the dream, Daniel witnessed the end of
Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, as they had their own version of what the world is
going through at the time of writing, their own little Babylonian financial crisis
due to expanded currency supplies. Many historians agree things were not
going well for Babylon at this time, they were at war and it was proving very
costly for them. (Sound familiar?) They expanded the currency supply to
continue funding the war. Daniel was present on the night of October 5/6, 539
B.C.E., when the writing was on the wall for Babylon. The Medo-Persian army diverted the protective waters around Babylon so they could surprise attack
at night. Cyrus took seemingly impregnable Babylon and executed King
Belshazzar. With the death of Belshazzar, the golden head of the dream
image—the Babylonian Empire—ceased to exist. The monetary cycle going
from money over to currency always ends badly.
Medo-Persia
Following Babylon, Medo-Persia became the dominant world power of Bible
history. So after Babylon the next dominant world power was Medo-Persia, as
represented by the silver chest and arms of the dream image. There is ample
proof that the monetary cycle repeated once again they went back to using
silver as money. They went back to using the terms shekel and minah which
were once again the basis of the monetary system based on silver once
again. Indeed the Bible chose silver to represent them in the dream image,
many Bible scholars say this was due to the new silver monetary system that
replaced the Babylonian currency system that had just collapsed ending that
world power. I have been researching for a while when and how they next
went from using real money to issuing and using currency but historians do
not always agree on this. I can see its the same monetary cycle repeating as
normal. However what we do know is that when the next world power that
had been prophesied in the Bible - Greece's new leader Alexander the Great
became the next dominant world power by force formed an international new
monetary system after the monetary cycle repeated the next time, 2300
years ago when he conquered the Medo-Persian empire and imposed his own
monetary system, based on gold and silver once again. This indicates that
before the fall of the then world power Medo-Persia, the world was using
currency not money as a global financial system. But as I said there is ample
proof that they started off using silver as money not currency. Indeed the
Bible chose to use silver to depict the Medo-Persian world power because they started off once again using silver as a monetary system.
So how could Alexander the great go back to silver money, if they were
already using gold and silver? The answer is the monetary cycle repeated as
normal so they (Medo-Persia) had gone over to currency and expanded the
supply to the point where people lost faith in it. As always it ended badly for
them.
By now it is easy to see the pattern developing. A world power starts using
money and then fools its people into thinking its currency whatever that may
be is as good as money and fools the people into having confidence in the
currency as they expand the supply which ends badly for them when the con
game comes to an end.
The last of the kings on the throne of the Persian Empire was Darius III. His
reign ended abruptly in 331 B.C.E. when he suffered a terrible defeat by
Alexander the Great at Gaugamela, near ancient Nineveh. This defeat ended
the Medo-Persian World Power as symbolised by the silver part of the image
of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. I suspect the pattern was similar after the Medo-
Persian world power expanded the supplies of currency to a point where the
people began to lose confidence in it and the con game came to an end
which always ends badly for the world power issuing the currency that died.
The power to come was superior in some ways, yet inferior in others. This
becomes clear as we listen to Daniel’s further interpretation of
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Greece
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the belly and thighs of the immense image
constituted “another kingdom, a third one, of copper, that [would] rule over
the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:32, 39) This third kingdom would follow Babylonia
and Medo-Persia. As copper is inferior to silver, this new world power would
be inferior to Medo-Persia in some ways. However, the copperlike kingdom
would “rule over the whole earth,” indicating that it would be more extensive
than either Babylonia or Medo-Persia. What do the facts of history bear out
about this world power?
After the victory at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great went on to take the
Persian capitals Babylon, and others. Subduing the rest of the Persian Empire,
he extended his conquests into western India. As Daniel had foretold, the
copper kingdom ‘ruled over the whole earth.’ If you have studied history you will know that ancient Greece was considered
one of the great civilisations of all time. So what happened why did such a
great world power fall? The answer lies in the same pattern we have see time
and again.
The Owls of Athens.
The owls of Athens are thick and bulky silver coins stamped with the
helmeted head of Athena on one side and her owl, the symbol of wisdom, on
the reverse. First minted at the end of the sixth century BC in Athens, they
soon spread far outside its walls. I used to be a sailing instructor working out
of Athens sailing to many of the islands in the Mediterranean. Every museum
from all the surrounding islands and lands will have a history using these
silver coins as money.
They were used for foreign trade and became a symbol of Athenian power
during the time when the position of the dominant world power was held by
Greece. The monetary cycle repeated as normal, other coins came and went
but these owl silver coins remained consistent for more than three centuries.
And that consistency ensured that Athenian coins were accepted and trusted
throughout the Mediterranean. Only the Venetian ducat of medieval Europe
silver coins, which were minted for more than half a millennium, would rival
the longevity and credibility of the Owl.
The first owls were minted just as Athens was starting to go through a period
of unprecedented political and economic growth. Athens prosperity depended
on silver, much of which came from the silver mines of Laurium, 65 kilometres south of the city of Athens. The mines helped Athens rise to
become the pre-eminent civilisation of the Mediterranean. Xenophon wrote:
"the divine bounty has bestowed upon us inexhaustible mines of silver." This
to me is such an interesting quote. I have visited these long since exhausted
silver mines and couldn't help wondering to myself if only they had known
that silver only occurs on the earths crust and it is not indeed
inexhaustible. The fact that silver is not inexhaustible became clearly
known around 413 BC, Athens began to find less and less silver as the mines
became depleted. The real problems became evident as the new silver
started to run out, in an act of desperation, the city even melted down the
gold objects on the Acropolis, including eight gold statues of Nike, the
Goddess of victory. In 404 BC, following a prolonged siege, Athens
surrendered to the Spartans. Thucydides described the chronic shortage of
silver as the principle cause of Athens defeat. The silver mines had supported
the rise of this great civilisation, but their absence upon the realisation that
silver is not inexhaustible, hastened its fall.
Nike had been abandoned. From her, new gold coins were made with the
same weight and form with the owl and helmet. But they did not prove to be
as popular. It was silver, not gold, that reigned supreme during Athens'
cultural, political and economic heyday. The importance of silver was evident
by the greater value given to it at this time. Historically the silver gold ratio is
around 16:1 because this was around the amount of silver being mined
compared to gold through most of history. But in Athens gold was valued only
12 times that of silver. Very similar to the ratio of ten to one decreed by King
Croesus of Lydia. For over four and a half millenniums the GSR (gold silver
ratio) fluctuated in the range of 9:1 all the way up to the high end of the ratio
16:1. Today in 2014 the ratio is 75:1. Seventy five ounces of silver are valued
the same as one ounce of gold despite the fact that silver is now more rare
than gold in available worldwide stockpiles.
Through history the relative values of gold and silver simply float, based on
supply and demand. But this is not the case today as the silver manipulation
needs to keep the price of silver down to keep the investment interest of the
masses away for as long as possible. As Franklin Sounders says "If I had a chart 45 feet long on which every foot
represented 100 years of human history, the gold/silver ratio would remain
under 16:1 for all but the last 15 inches. In fact, 16:1 are the highest spikes
on the chart apart from the last 15 inches and for the first 40 feet the ratio
oscillated under 12:1, and spent most of its time between 8:1 and 12:1. So
the majority of the time over the 45 feet it was around 8:1 which is the
natural ratio they are coming out of the ground today."
Over 97% of that 45 feet chart the ratio has been average under 16 ounces
of silver valued for one ounce of gold which was the natural ratio that silver
has been mined for every one ounce of gold. That ratio has now halved, only
8 ounces are now mined for every one ounce of gold.
Imagine that 45 foot chart on a wall. Most of the time 8:1 with a few spikes up
to 16:1, averaging about 12:1 for all but the last few inches. Then right at the
end few inches it shoots up to 75:1. And that only covers the last 4500 years
back to the great flood of Noahs time. Almost certainly gold and silver were
being used as money for more than a 1000 years before that and I would
guess the ratio was similar the long term norm about 8:1.
So as we have said when Greece became the next dominant world power the
monetary cycle repeated as normal and they went back to using money as
money rather than currency, how long would it last this time? Well they really
flourished under this new monetary system. As Mike Maloney says in his book
about monetary history "Then they got involved with a war that turned out to
be far longer and more costly than they thought (sound familiar?). After many
years of war and most of their money spent the Greeks came up with a very
clever way to continue funding the war. It was the same thing that led to the
demise of every major world power we have looked at up to this time. They
began to debase their money into currency to pay for the war. They
discovered if you take 1000 silver coins in taxes and then mix in 50% copper
you can then spend 2000 coins. Does it sound familiar? Maybe not as bad as
issuing 2 animal skins for every 1 silver coin, but its very similar to what the
previous world powers did."
This was now a government currency that you could buy gold and silver with,
but the currency supply was no longer gold and silver in and of themselves.
And as a consequence this currency became practically worthless. It's very
interesting the Bible chose copper to represent Greece as the next world
power when they were the first to use copper to debase their currency. Silver
was very fitting for the Bible to use to represent Medo-Persia as they started
off with a silver monetary system. Copper was very fitting for Greece because
they were the first to debase their silver with copper.
To repeat because its so important and as far as I know I'm the firsts ever to recognise this: Gold was fitting for Babylon because gold was being used
along with silver as money, silver was fitting to represent Medo-Persia
because silver was once again the monetary system, then the Bible chooses
Copper to represent Greece which is again very fitting because they were the
first to debase their silver with copper, a practice which has been repeated
right up to modern times. I am the first to make these observations and that
is all they are observations. The Bible using copper to represent Greece may
have nothing to do with them debasing their silver coins. But it is generally
agreed that the Bible using silver to represent Medo-Persia was based on the
fact that they went back to using silver as money again after the Babylonian
financial crisis. I am a long time student of both the Bible and monetary
history which is why I am so interested in these three monetary metals
copper, gold and silver. In particular the two monetary precious metals at the
top of the image- gold and silver.
But obviously once the public woke up to the abuse of money and the
currency debasement by mixing in 50% copper, anyone who held on to their
old silver coins found they were worth a lot, lot more than the same face
value 50% copper coins. Many times over the next thousands of years this
has been tried debasing monetary coins, and those who held onto the old
ones found they were worth a great deal more. See the next bonus chapter
on urban mining to see how this can be done today. This once again ended
badly, as the monetary cycle repeated as normal, within a short time of going
off money and onto currency they eventually became nothing more than a
province of the next great world power that had been prophesied in Daniels
time......