I Found a 400-Year-Old Barcode in a River, and It Changed How I See The World #5

I pulled a strange lead disc from the River Thames, and it sent me down a rabbit hole that rewrote history. This isn't a coin. It's a 400-year-old 'cloth seal' — a lost technology that solved the problem of trust and allowed textiles, not gold, to fuel the first global economy.

Join this investigation as we trace the threads from the industrial looms of Europe to the chemical magic of Indian dye-makers. We follow the epic 'Silver Loop' that connected Spanish silver mines to Chinese silk markets, and uncover the dark role cloth played as a currency in the Atlantic slave trade. Finally, we reveal the shocking connection between an 1804 loom, the punch card, and the computer code that runs your life today.

This is the story of how a tiny lead seal invented your barcode. Our closets are archives of power. What's hiding in yours? #history #technology #economy #supplychain #archaeology

Main Video Chapters:
00:00:41 It’s the direct ancestor of the barcode
00:03:57 He'd take a small strip of lead
00:06:14 Legend says it was discovered around 2700
00:09:21 The silver they tore from the earth
00:13:15 He thought if a machine can be

Related video: How a Single Number on a Door Built the Modern World — https://youtu.be/vOs-YA9GjlI

history documentary, cloth seals, lead cloth seal

Видео I Found a 400-Year-Old Barcode in a River, and It Changed How I See The World #5 канала Archives of Humanity