The circulation of the currency is limited to the city of Bristol, after which the local pound is named, the people have already dubbed it as "Bristol". This experiment is carried out to support small businesses.

The fact is that due to the protracted crisis, the purchasing power of the population has fallen even in such a rich country as Great Britain. The Bristol pound can be obtained by exchanging it at a bank at a rate of 1:1 against the pound sterling. When making a reverse transaction, a 3% tax will be charged.

How can the introduction of a local currency revive the economy? Let's figure it out together. What is money, when and how did it appear?

Money appeared in China during the Shang Dynasty, which ruled from 1600 to 1027 BC. On September 18, 2012, the People's Bank of China issued a gold coin in honor of the first Chinese state.

During the Shang Dynasty, centralization of power began in China, the king was the ruler, he was the nominal owner of all the land of the state. At the court there were clerks and archivists. Tsarist power relied on the nobility, warriors and clergy. Ritual services were held in the temples.

What happened in China earlier 3,600 years ago, no reliable written sources have been found to date.

It is assumed that various tribes lived on the territory of China, which existed at the expense of crafts and barter. How could the tribes unite, how did the monetary form of payment appear? Scientists say that the need just arose, they just took it and united, and invented money for themselves.Let's try to imagine the layman of that time. He catches fish, picks berries, breeds livestock, makes household items...

Represented? Now imagine that he so easily exchanged it for some items that are of no value to him, because before that there was no money at all! Natural exchange is understandable, a man changed his fish, for vegetables, for clothes, a shovel ... But why does he need pieces of bronze, what, to carry these pieces of iron with him? It was later that money with holes appeared, for ease of wearing, and then it was cast coins, similar to the one shown in the picture.

How to wear them and why does such a bizarre shape look like the head of a cow or a ram? Surely taxes were introduced in the emerging state, but how to maintain the administrative apparatus, the king? And, of course, they were charged in the beginning in kind. From whom they will take fish, from whom they will take clothes, from whom they will take livestock, and this is food and skins - you can use it for clothes. Surely the tax standard was cattle, well, why not take half of the cow? Painfully, this coin looks like a cow's head. By the way, such coins were in use until the 3rd century BC.

And how to force a person to pay taxes, he himself will not voluntarily give it back, why is it all of a sudden, none of the ancestors paid anything. Here we recall the time of perestroika and the beginning of the 90s of the last century. Do you remember how a person offering protection came to a cooperator (craftsman), and when he did not agree, the next day hooligans came and caused damage, the cooperator himself turned to the “security structure”?

And how to track whether the tax is paid or not, because paper was invented in China after one and a half thousand years. Tablets? So this is China, there were a lot of them there and then. Cars of plates are hard to take into account and control.

So they came up with tokens - coins. Coins are easy to carry and can be exchanged. This is how one of the modern functions of money appeared - a measure of value.

The tax inspector (publican) gave out one coin in exchange for a large horned animal, it also happened when exchanging 3 goats, 3 bags of fish, etc. Cunning, of course, there were people, they immediately laid such a loophole with deceit. However, little has changed since then.

Over time, it became fashionable to show how much you paid taxes, which means a rich person. We began to exchange and collect these tokens. The function of modern money appeared - accumulation. If people understood that by accepting a coin or banknote from anyone, they doom themselves to being tied to the one who produced them. After all, it will be necessary to change them back, and this is how people drive themselves into slavery, dependence on paying taxes.

The longer this epic continued, the more money was put into circulation. The money supply began to far exceed the quantity of goods produced. The goods deteriorate, and there are practically no coins. This is how inflation came about. Then the money began to lend, at interest, thereby further depreciating the goods. After all, he took one coin, and you need to return 2. Here is such a nonsense.

I wonder who came up with all this and for what purpose? But you can read about this and many other things in the unique books of Anastasia Novykh. It describes not only how the world works, but also how to get around the traps cunningly placed on every corner, and, of course, about those who set these traps and for what. You can download books completely free of charge (spiritual knowledge is given only free of charge) in the corresponding section of our website. And you can read the fragment right here, see the excerpt below.

Read more about this in the books of Anastasia Novykh

(click on the quote to download the entire book for free):

And who invented them, these candy wrappers? Andrey shrugged his shoulders, unwrapping another candy he liked.

Chinese,” said Ahriman carelessly.

Chinese? - the guy was surprised.

Yes. The Tang Dynasty Emperor of China issued the first paper money in 650. They were printed on high quality paper, were easily transported, and could always be exchanged for copper money. Therefore, this type of money quickly gained popularity. Then this fashion was adopted by the Persians, the Japanese, and so it went to walk around the world.

And before that there was copper money? Kostya asked.

Various: copper, silver, gold. In a word, metal,” said Ahriman.

Who invented coins? - suffered in the inquiries of our Philosopher.

Again, the Chinese. The first coins appeared with them in the XII century BC. They were cast. And then, after about five centuries, minted coins appeared in the ancient Greek colonies.

Wow, how smart the Chinese are, but I had no idea, - Zhenya said sarcastically and glanced at Belial, who at that time, standing a little behind Ahriman, was looking proudly and arrogantly at the sitting guests.

Every nation considers itself smart,” Ahriman shrugged. - The Romans, for example, believed that the invention of coins is the merit of their gods, such as Saturn, Janus, or King Numa Pompilius. The Greeks assured that the coins were invented by their heroes Theseus, Lycus, in extreme cases, the Argos king Phidon, who lived in the 7th century BC.

Ahriman paused as he sipped his tea. And then Sensei, who was still exchanging insignificant phrases with Ahriman, unexpectedly for us entered into a polemic with him.

Yes, but the main thing is not who invented the coins, but what they mean. According to linguists who got to the bottom of the word coin, translated from Latin moneo, monui, monitum means “foreshadowing”, “warning”. And the verb from which these words are derived means "to advise." And, by the way, since we have already touched on linguistics, the word “capital” also comes from the Latin word “caput” ...

I don't understand, - Zhenya started up, hearing a familiar word. - Is it in the sense of "Hitler kaput"?

And the guy showed a cross with his hand in the air. We laughed, and Sensei answered with a smile:

Well, maybe he brought “kaput” to Hitler. But if we talk about the translation of the word “capital”, then caput means “head”.

Aaah, smart means, - the guy concluded.

Not at all, - Sensei shook his head negatively. - I mean the number of livestock. - And looking at the surprised reaction of the guys who stopped even chewing, he explained: - Just before, cattle was considered a monetary unit. And his score was kept on the heads.

Having said that, Sensei looked at Ahriman contentedly, and then we hurried to turn our heads towards him. It seemed to me that Ahriman's face flickered with a slight confusion, but when he received everyone's attention, he immediately reproduced a charming smile and said cheerfully:

Of course, there was, of course, a time when money walked on four legs. But it's good that those days are long gone. Otherwise, I would now be tormented to count my “capital” over their heads.

Yes, from such capital there would be only losses, - Volodya remarked with laughter. - Not only does he constantly ask for food, but also the smell spreads a specific one.

What's right is right! - said Ahriman, as if Volodya had hit the point of his mental reasoning.

Ahriman exchanged glances with Sensei, and they laughed again, as if both put much more meaning into these words than they said out loud. Laughing, Ahriman shook his head.

M-yes, everything that served a person as money: from cow skulls in Borneo to human skulls in the Solomon Islands, from salt bars in Africa to brick tea in China and Burma. In ancient Mexico, cocoa beans were generally calculated. But the most interesting thing is that even in those days there were “counterfeiters” who counterfeited beans,” Ahriman chuckled. - What people have tried as means of payment: tobacco, grains of rice, corn, dried fish, skins, livestock, people.

Yes, - Sensei said sadly. - Money has changed, only the attitude towards money has remained the same ...

In principle, nothing has changed,” Ahriman agreed with him.

- Anastasia NOVICH "Sensei III"

Money one of the greatest human inventions. The origin of money is associated with 7 - 8 thousand BC, when primitive tribes had surpluses of some products that could be exchanged for other necessary products. Historically, cattle, cigars, shells, stones, pieces of metal have been used, with varying degrees of success, as a means of facilitating exchange. But to serve as money, an object must be generally accepted by both buyers and sellers as a medium of exchange. Money is determined by society itself; everything that society recognizes as circulation is money. Indeed, money is a commodity that acts as a universal equivalent, reflecting the value of all other commodities.

What are the main stages in the history of the development of money?

First stage- the appearance of money with the performance of their functions by random goods; second phase— consolidation of the role of the universal equivalent for gold (this stage was perhaps the longest); third stage- the stage of transition to paper or credit money; And last fourth stage- the gradual displacement of cash from circulation, as a result of which electronic types of payments appeared.

Gold and silver as money

Gold and silver most fully met the above requirements, thus, in the process of the evolution of commodity exchange, a special, absolutely liquid commodity is singled out, used as a universal equivalent of the value of money. This commodity is gold and silver, an early form of metallic money.

Gold and silver appear as money as early as the 13th century BC. e. in the form of various ingots with a certain weight of metal. As a result of the further development of market relations, coins are being minted from metal - banknotes that have a form established by law and a weighted full-fledged monetary content.

Coins made from a natural alloy of gold and silver (electrum) first appear in the state of Lydia in the 7th century BC. e. In Russia, coinage began to be minted in the 9th - 10th centuries. However, due to the lack of gold deposits in Kievan Rus, foreign coins were predominantly used - Arab and Byzantine coins made of gold and silver. Later, around the 11th century, silver and copper ingots began to be used in domestic circulation. The most common was a one-pound silver ingot (about 400 g), called « » . But the "hryvnia" had a rather high cost, so it was cut in half, into two equal parts, called « » , or "ruble hryvnia".

commodity money

The early form of metallic money is characterized by the coincidence of the commodity value of the metal contained in the coins and their face value indicated on the front side of the coin. This is one of the drawbacks commodity money. If their value as a commodity exceeds their value as money, they will cease to function as money. Indeed, if, for example, a ruble coin had a silver (or gold, or some other) content worth, say, two rubles, then it would be very profitable to melt the coin and sell it as an ingot. Therefore, despite the illegality of such actions, ruble coins would begin to disappear from circulation.

In this regard, around the 15th century, metal money began to lose its commodity basis. Metal money begins to divide into full-fledged(the nominal value of which corresponds to the value of the metal they contain) and defective(nominal value higher than the value of the contained metal). Currently, in no country in the world, metal money is not full-fledged.

History of paper money

Deserves special attention origin of paper money. Where did they come from? To answer this question, we must turn again to history.

Soon after gold began to be used in transactions, it became obvious that it was inconvenient and unsafe for both buyers and traders to transport, weigh and check the purity of gold every time a transaction was made. Therefore, the rule came into practice donate gold to goldsmiths who have special storerooms and are ready to provide them for a fee. Having received a gold deposit, the goldsmith gave out to the depositor receipt.

Goods were soon exchanged for these receipts, which evolved into an early form of paper money, and the goldsmiths themselves became the prototypes of modern bankers. Since the gold kept by the goldsmiths in the pantries was rarely claimed, that is, it was not in circulation, it can be said that the receipts were real money, since their number exactly corresponded to the amount of gold stored by goldsmiths.

That was until some ingenious goldsmith, seeing that the amount of gold coming in exceeded the amount withdrawn, he began to issue receipts not backed by gold, giving loans at interest to merchants, producers and consumers. So was born fractional reserve banking system. These receipts were no longer full-fledged money. It is believed that the founders of banks and paper money were English goldsmiths. In the future, the right to issue paper money passed from private hands to the state.

In our country, paper money appeared in 1766 by decree of Empress Catherine II. At present, as well as metal money, paper money in no country in the world has a commodity basis, that is, they are not exchanged for gold or other precious metals. metals.

The history of money is very interesting. The first money arose in ancient times, and has survived to this day, but in a completely different form. Because of money there were wars, revolutions, change of governments and overthrow of kings. Are they the engine of history? Or is their role limited only to purchasing power? To answer these questions, we will learn the history of the appearance of money, the ways of their evolution and the history of distribution around the world.

Ancient times

History of money originates from the time of the existence of ancient tribes. But the money of those times was significantly different from the money of today. It was rather not money, but a means of exchange. So, for example, in pastoral tribes, money was cattle, in Pomeranian settlements, money was fish, which was exchanged for bread and meat so necessary for the tribe. It is known that different peoples had their own items that served them as money:

In Mexico, cocoa beans were money;

In Canada, Alaska and Siberia, ancient ancestors used the skins of valuable animals as money;

Among some tribes of South America and on the islands of Oceania, seashells or pearls were money;

The tribes of New Zealand used stones with a hole in the middle instead of money.

In some places grain or salt served as money. The use of commodity-money made it possible to exchange them with other tribes or use them for their intended purpose in their economy. But they were extremely inconvenient to use. Therefore, there was a need for another, more practical form of payment.

Kauri. Photo from shells-of-aquarius.com

The Afars, a warlike tribe that inhabits the Danakil Desert in northeastern Ethiopia, have a legend that their land was once extremely rich in gold. The Afars, bathing in luxury, became conceited and angered God. All their gold turned into salt, and the tribe instantly became impoverished. To this day, it lives from hand to mouth, wandering with its lean cattle through the meager pastures of Danakil. But the Afars believe that sooner or later they will redeem themselves and God will turn the salt into gold again.

However, salt turned out to be not much worse than gold: everyone needs it and is always in price, that is, it is liquid; stored for an arbitrarily long time without losing essential properties; easily divided (exchanged). So for the Afars for a whole millennium (up to the 20th century), salt became the main means of exchange. For example, an Afar who raises sheep wants to buy milk from his neighbor who raises cows. However, the sheep have not yet had time to grow wool, so barter is not possible. He exchanges milk for salt and is all the more pleased that, unlike milk, it does not turn sour and he can put it aside in reserve.

Salt is not a conditional commodity, unlike money, but a consumed one, so it is not yet a monetary system in the classical sense. But this is no longer a completely natural exchange, since merchants can accept salt not only as a product, but also to preserve wealth (vegetables will rot, meat will go rotten, and nothing will happen to salt), and for subsequent use as a means of payment.

Gold has two important advantages over salt, both of which stem from its rarity. First, it packs the same value in a much smaller volume, which means it's much more portable. Secondly, there is a much lower risk that a new huge source of gold (deposit or import) will be discovered and its value will drop sharply.

Food as a currency

In the most ancient agricultural societies of Mesopotamia, three millennia BC, barley was the most important commodity. The smallest "bargaining unit" was shekel- 180 barley grains (usually about 11 grams). Barley shekels could express the value of any product or service.

Over time, the shekel became a universal measure of weight, they began to measure, in particular, silver. In the laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (about the 18th century BC) - the oldest surviving set of written laws - fines were indicated in silver shekels. The value of barley was highly dependent on the crop, so silver was a much more stable "currency".

In feudal Japan until the 19th century, the main, so to speak, unit of wealth was coca- the amount of rice that can feed an adult during the year (about 278 liters, or about 150 kilograms). If a landowner was said to have 30,000 koku, this did not mean that he had that much rice. It was the total value of all his assets - productive land, livestock, labor, reduced to the most understandable unit of measurement. Coku measured the wealth of even those possessions where rice was not grown at all.

Among the nomads of the Eurasian steppes, cattle played the role of a universal equivalent: with its help they paid taxes and penalties, redeemed brides, exchanged bread, tar, high-quality weapons and other necessary goods from settled neighbors.

All these "natural currencies" had a common problem: they were extremely volatile, that is, their value relative to other goods fluctuated greatly throughout the year and depended on many natural factors (crops could die from rain or drought, livestock could die). In this sense, minerals were much more reliable. Gold and silver turned out to be ideal: they are quite common and at the same time quite rare, they do not corrode, do not oxidize, they are easy to recognize. For small transactions, copper was most often used: it is also quite chemically stable and is common on all continents. From the use of metals as "natural currencies" by weight (in the form of sand or bars) there was only one step left to coinage.

Slaves and shells

But the most famous example of commodity money is, of course, cowrie shells. They had two important advantages. First, they are almost impossible to fake. Secondly, a huge margin was provided by simply moving shells from point A to point B: say, in the Niger Delta, the most important trading hub of West Africa, they cost a thousand (!) Times more than in the Maldives, where they were mined the most.

Kauri were the most durable of the "natural currencies": the first evidence of their use as a means of payment dates back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, and they were forced out of circulation only by the beginning of the 20th century. They were used as a means of payment throughout Africa, India, Indo-China, the Pacific Islands and among North American Indians from the Pacific coast to the Great Lakes. And in China, at one time, coins were even banned (to stop counterfeiting money), and cowries were the main means of payment. Even the traditional Chinese character for "money" originated from a stylized image of a shell.

From the 16th to the 19th century, kauri were a key element in the slave trade system. Europeans bought them in the same Maldives for gold, for rice (which was brought from India) or for some other goods. Thousands of tons of shells were brought to Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch ports. Ships bound for slave markets in the Niger Delta or Zanzibar often carried nothing but cowries. Slaves were driven mainly from the interior of Africa (Uganda, Congo, Zaire), where kauri was the most common "currency" and cost, of course, much more than on the coast.

The expanding cotton and sugarcane plantations in the New World demanded more and more slaves. Accordingly, Europeans brought more and more kauri to Africa. The natural result of this was inflation. In the second half of the 19th century, so many shells were needed to buy a batch of slaves in the interior of Africa that the profits from reselling the slaves to planters no longer covered the cost of transporting cowries. Thus began the decline of the slave trade, and with it the "shell economy."

Five hundred years ago, a dozen cowrie shell beads could buy a slave in Zanzibar. Nowadays, on the same Zanzibar, a string of such beads can be bought as a souvenir for a dollar and a half.

Eternal values

Commodity money as a simple and reliable means of payment arises almost inevitably in any society where there is no established banking system. A textbook example is the Soviet economy of the period of collapse, when "normal" money was rapidly becoming cheaper and there was nothing to buy with it, and the people willingly used vodka, cigarettes and similar enduring values ​​in mutual settlements. In prison, where money is simply forbidden, cigarettes usually play their role. Those who read Jack London should remember that the heroes of his stories about Alaska almost never pay in dollars, preferring gold dust. The founding father of economics, Adam Smith, a Scot by origin, wrote in the 18th century that in his homeland, peasants often pay among themselves with nails: "ordinary" money is still not much to spend on anything, but always nail something somewhere necessary.

metal money

Gradually money becomes metallic. And in the seventh century BC, minted coins appear. They quickly spread around the world. This is easy to explain, because coins are convenient to store, transport, crush and combine. They have a high cost with a small volume and weight.

In most countries, silver, copper or bronze acted as the metal for minting coins. And only in Egypt and Assyria gold was used as money as far back as two millennia BC. With the growth of commodity-production relations, it became necessary to increase the value of the exchange equivalent. From this point on, gold and silver become the main money.

Paper money

History of money received a new round of development with the advent of paper money. They appeared in 910 in China. And in Russia, the first paper money was introduced under Catherine II in 1769.

With the advent of banks, it was they who became the custodians of money and basic values. When depositing money, a person received a certificate from the bank. It indicated how much the banker had in custody and the bearer of this certificate was supposed to receive a certain amount of money from the bank. This made it possible to pay not with coins, but with these certificates. A little time passed, and the certificates themselves began to be equated with real money. This is the history of paper money. And the very word "banknote" originates from the English words "bank note" and in translation means "bank record".

And if earlier the economic essence of paper money was the obligation to issue natural money, now the banknotes themselves are the same money.

AUSTRALIA - DOLLAR

BUTANE - NGULTHRUM

JAPAN - YEN

Emergence of state central banks

The first such bank appeared in Sweden in 1661. The main tasks of the state central bank were control over banking operations in the country and responsibility for the state of the national currency, including its production.

Other countries did not immediately follow Sweden's example. So, for example, the central bank in France was founded 140 years later, and in the Russian Empire the State Bank appeared in 1860. And only in 1913 the Federal Reserve System was founded in the USA. Prior to its introduction, dollar bills were issued by individual US banks, and differed from each other in design and size.

The beginning of globalization

In 1944, the Bretton Woods International Conference was held, at which an agreement was made to peg the dollar to the gold rate and this continued until 1971. It was the dollar that became the international currency on which international trade was based. At the conference, it was decided to establish the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It is from the Bretton Woods Conference that the modern process of globalization of the whole world begins.

Bank cards

In 1950, the world's first Diners Club credit card was issued to pay for restaurant visits. And in 1952, the American bank Franklin National Bank issued the first bank credit card.

Nowadays, you will not surprise anyone with bank cards. History of money continues and gains momentum. According to statistics, the average American currently has about ten plastic cards for various purposes on hand.

Computers in the service of financiers

1972 was marked by the involvement of computers in the financial sector. For example, in the United States, a centralized electronic network is being created to account for bank checks. And in 1973, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) was created. The creators of this system were 239 banks representing 15 countries of the world. For the first time, teletype was no longer used for interbank money transfers.

Since 1977, personal computers have appeared in retail, and this marked the computerization of various sectors of the economy and life, the creation of new forms of money and the emergence of the Internet.

It is believed that the very first coins appeared in China and in the ancient Lydian kingdom in the 7th century BC. Around 500 BC, the Persian king Darius made an economic revolution in his state, introducing coins into circulation and replacing barter with them.

There are many definitions of the word money in the world:

Money- a tool that makes humanity "move" for the sake of getting them, and this sets in motion the entire human mass

Long ago, in the Stone Age, people did quite well without of money. Why did they need them? They received everything they needed for life from nature. After all, the most important thing for a person would be food and housing. And people lived in caves, went hunting with clubs and stone axes, collected plants.

But it turned out that not every person who knew how to make axes and other weapons was also a good hunter! An idea arose: let the gunsmith make weapons, and the hunter goes hunting with this weapon, while the hunter pays the gunsmith for the weapon with prey!

So there was a mutually beneficial exchange-barter. Why does a person do everything himself, including what he is poorly versed in? Isn't it better to distribute responsibilities and change one product for another that you cannot do yourself? That is, there was a specialization in the manufacture of certain types of products.

But in order to change one product for another, the seller needs a particular product that is offered by another merchant. Consequently, the exchange of goods could take place only if both merchants entering into the transaction had the necessary goods.

This condition severely limited the possibility of commodity exchange. It should also be taken into account that the exchange must comply with the requirement of equality in the value of the goods participating in the exchange, which also limited the exchange. The need for the development of exchange led to the selection of the equivalent used in the exchange of goods from the set of exchanged goods.

Over time, goods with good liquidity stood out ( liquidity is the ability to implement). These were animals, furs, precious stones, salt, grain, dishes, furniture, shoes, clothes, precious metals, etc. Just precious metals (mostly gold, silver) were singled out as a general equivalent.

The qualities inherent in gold, such as: it is a rare, homogeneous, divisible metal, can be stored for a long time, portable, hard to get, contributed to the choice of this particular metal.

The product with the highest liquidity money. Money is the most liquid. Note that there have been money as a result of economic relations in the economic life of people. Thus, it turns out that money appeared absolutely objectively. Money are a commodity, and the commodity is intended for exchange.

The very word "money" arose as a result of the fact that the ancient Romans used the Temple of the goddess Juno Coin as a workshop for minting coins. Subsequently, all the places where coins were made began to be called "coin". The English version of this word is "mint", the French one is "monet"; from this word came the English word "mani" - money. Coins have been around for about 2500 years, but they are known to have been preceded by various objects used as money.

Talent is also the name of a coin.

Talent(Ex.38:25,29, Mat.18:29) - a counting coin among the Jews, equal to 60 mines, or 6,000 drachmas, or 3,000 sacred. sickles. Like other coins, it changed in its value at different times and in different places, but during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, its approximate value for our money was 1.29 rubles. In the Bible, in the New Testament, the word "talent" in the meaning of "money" is mentioned only in the parable of Jesus Christ (Mat.25:18, etc.). In other places of Holy Scripture, this word refers to the weight that the Jews had for metals: the talent of gold, silver, lead, copper, iron.

So, for example, the crown of the king of the Ammonites had a weight of a talent of gold (2 Kings 12:30); The mountain of Samaria, on which the city of Samaria was built, was bought by Omri for two talents of silver (1 Kings 16:24), etc. Especially many talents of gold and silver were used for the sacred utensils of the tabernacle and temple (Ex. 25:39, Ex. 38:24, 27, 1 Kings 9:14). And after the captivity during the time of the Syrian kings, the account was made with talents (1 Mac. 11:28, 2 Mac. 3:11, etc.).

On the wall paintings of ancient Egypt, gold rings are weighed on the scales. The most ancient manuscripts (from the time of ancient Mesopotamia) describe the use of weighed metal as money. In China, at least 3,000 years ago, cowrie shells, the shells of certain mollusks from the Indian Ocean, were used as money. Some Indians in North America also used shellfish as of money which they called her " wampum".

There is also evidence that stones were used in primitive societies thousands of years ago. Paper of money there were predecessors in the form of documents promising payments in gold, silver and other valuable items.

Notable Stories The earliest circulating bills, banknotes, were first issued by bankers in China in the 18th century AD. Although banks and bankers existed for many centuries before the very first banknotes.

At first, banknotes were supported by coins, and as a result, they began to be perceived as money. By the 17th century paper money have been put into circulation in very small quantities in only a few countries. The Bank of England began issuing banknotes in 1964, the year the institution was formed.

Main historical stages of development of money:

The first stage is the appearance of money with the performance of their functions by random goods.

The second stage is the consolidation of the role of the universal equivalent for gold (this stage was the longest).

The third stage is the stage of transition to paper or credit money.

And finally, the last, 4th stage is the gradual displacement of cash from circulation, as a result of which electronic types of payments began to appear.

Why did people invent money? This question has been haunting many for a long time. Someone guessed about this invention a long time ago, but someone still does not understand why we need these pieces of paper, and, especially, where and how they can be in large quantities.
If you make a short digression into history, you can easily understand that primitive people absolutely did not need money. Everything that they needed at that time, they took from mother nature: they lived in caves, made fire from a spark, collected fruits from trees, hunted, etc.

But, over time, people's requests began to grow, they were no longer satisfied with the situation "what you find is yours." Many began to prefer choice. For example, I wanted to change mammoth meat for fish. And how could this be done if there is no reservoir or sea nearby? Primitive tribes had to go where they could exchange meat for fish, or one skin for another. Thus, a mutually beneficial trade arose. But what was to be done when it was impossible to make such an exchange, more precisely, one of the changers did not have a suitable product in stock? Then primitive people came up with, so to speak, a "measure". It was believed that a commodity that is always needed, and without which it is impossible to do, could be exchanged for any thing, even those that are not needed at the moment. And further. How and how much and what could be exchanged, and most importantly - for how much? They came up with the following: the most popular and necessary product was considered to be a unit. This is how the concept of equivalence was born. And the goods that were needed by everyone and always - as a rule, food, clothing, weapons for hunting, after a while were called liquid.

But that's not all. Primitive people after a while began to do exactly what they liked best. For example, someone was very good at mending the skin, and someone was an excellent archer. But how could they make a mutually beneficial exchange if neither one nor the other needed at that moment, neither the skin, nor the weapon, nor the booty? And there was no suitable “equivalent” either? Then they came up with the idea of ​​leaving something interesting as a pledge until the moment when the necessary exchange could be made. It could be an interesting stone, a metal nugget, a large carved bone, jewelry, etc. As soon as the exchangers had the necessary goods, they exchanged, and one of them took the deposit, or left the deposit, adding the goods. Such collateral was considered a “universal” commodity, and, over time, such a thing as liquidity appeared.
Over time, it became clear that it is not always possible to exchange one product for another or leave a deposit. Subsequently, with the development of civilization, people realized that it was possible to create and agree among themselves that certain things could be exchanged for any product.

This is how people invented money. And their equivalent, soon, was considered to be something that was very difficult, that it was difficult to find or get, and for which it was necessary to spend enormous labor. Metals such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium, iridium, etc., ideally suited this role. And with the development of such a science as chemistry, it was noticed that they also react badly with an aggressive environment. Since then, they began to be called - noble. And it was customary to call money that commodity, which, in a hidden form, implies all types of goods. And with such a tool, you can do everything: make transactions, buy goods and services, conduct investment, holding and other activities.

Then paper money was invented, and in our modern age, various types of electronic payments appeared.

With the help of money we can trade and exchange. We can use money to exchange our labor for any thing we need. Money is a measure of value, because with the help of money, we can compare the value of different things. Having money in a person is nothing more than a store of value and a basis for future payments.

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