The Fun Finance club presents

Credit; a history of trust

The characters
 The narrators
Gaius Julius Caesar
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Cavemen
 Hunter
 Gatherer
The Romans
 Also The narrators
World War One
 Nurse
 Soldier
People in the Fifties
 Modern Consumer
Scene 1
OoberKidsRepublic Jingle
Actors skip and dance to line up
The Jingle ends
The narrators move to the left and say: Trust
The cavemen more to the right and say: Belief
The soldier and nurse more to the left: Confidence
The Fifties kid: faith in yourself and the others
Everybody: CREDIT!

Scene 2:
Cecilia: when you think of credit your mind will probably
wander to credit cards & shopping
Director: let the narrators start!
Cecilia: Says who?
Director: I say so: I am the director.
Cecilia: Why are you wearing a uniform?
Director: You’ll see. Narrators, over to you!
Narrators: Ave!
Everyone: Ave!

Scene 3:
Cicero: Credit is a Latin word. It derives from the verb ‘credo’
Caesar: to trust or to believe
Cecilia: when someone gives someone else credit, they trust
them.
Director coughs loudly
Cecilia: alright, I am leaving
Caesar: Credit is global
Cicero: but it is a very old idea. It’s as old as mankind.
Cesar and Cicero: strangers, welcome to
Everyone: Credit - a history of trust

Scene 4: Cavemen
Hunter: I am a hunter. I hunt my prey to feed myself and my
community
Gatherer: I am a gatherer: I am very good at finding nuts,
fruits, at stealing eggs from nests and finding herbs to keep
food for longer
Hunter: Sometimes we can swap food and services
Gatherer: I give him something if he gives me something else
Cecilia: This is called barter
Everyone: Barter boogie
They sing the barter boogie
Both cavemen: but barter is hard.
Cecilia: for barter to work we need two coincidences
Cicero: Coincidence number one: the gatherer has right now
something the hunter wants right now
Caesar: Coincidence number two: the hunter has right now
what the gatherer wants right now
Everyone: a coincidence too much
Cecilia: more often than not people in those close-knit
communities gave each other credit
Hunter: don’t worry gatherer, have some of my meat. You
will pay me when you can. I trust you.
Gatherer: thanks

Scene 5: Romans
Caesar; I am Gaius Julius Caesar: you know me as a great
general and politician
Cicero: I am Marcus Tullius Cicero; I am one of the greatest
writers and philosophers in human history. (Turns to Cesar);
your great nephew, Octavian, had me murdered.
Caesar: (sighs) don’t look at me: I was dead already and
anyway I was murdered too.
Cecilia; Love him or hate him, Cesar was a man of great
foresight, before dying he had tried to reform the law to
avoid a credit crisis. He was in debt too…
Caesar: Did they listen to me?
Everyone else: no!
Cecilia: There were many credit crises during ancient times.
And they still go on nowadays

Scene 6
Cecilia: When someone gives credit, someone else is in debt.
The one who gives credit is called
Everyone: the lender
Cecilia: the one who contracts debt is called
Everyone: the borrower
Cecilia: the extra bit you pay when you contract debt is
Everyone: interest
Cicero and Cesar: credit, debt and interest are all Latin words
Scene 7
Soldier: It’s not just people who can ask for credit and
borrow money
Nurse: countries can do that too.
Soldier: the first time the United Kingdom borrowed money
not just from the rich but from anyone who could spare ANY
money was
Nurse: The First World War. Between 1914 and 1918 people
could lend money to the government to fund the war
Soldier: to pay soldiers, buy uniforms, weapons, food and
supplies
Nurse: to fund medical research, invent new treatments and
medicines
Cecilia; by the end of the First World War many people had
got used to lending money to their countries via bonds and
loan certificates.

Scene 8
Fifties girl: after the Second World War, credit became more
personal. People could get in debt to buy things they wanted,
just because they like them
Cecilia: whether they needed them or not. I LOVE your dress.
Is it new?
Fifties girl: yes! I just bought it with my credit card. But I am
going to be wise
Cicero and Caesar: You know what do to, right?
Fifties girl: Of course, I am going to be a wise credit card
user: I will pay back what I owe in full and on time.
Cecilia: This way your lender will not charge you interest.
Cicero and Caesar: Credit means trust
Everyone: so be responsible with your money!
Cecilia: remember the first rule of credit
Everyone: Trust is a must

Bow/curtsy