You could have weighed out precious metal,

你可以称量贵重金属
which would be money.

他们可以作为货币
Shekels, as in the Bible,

圣经中的舍客勒
are originally not coins;they are quantities,

起初并不是硬币而是量
weights of something and

某种东西的重量
come to mean weights of silver or gold.

之后指金或银的重量
So now you have a change in fundamental economic things.

由此经济的基本情况产生了改变
Well, all of this is tied up with this colonial story I've been telling you.

所有这些都与我讲过的殖民历史紧密相连
Finally, I think,

最后我认为
it works in both directions at the same time

它同时在两方面都产生了影响
in terms of the impact all of these changes have

所有的改变都给
on the political situation.

政治环境带来了冲击