It is impossible to imagine a modern world without money. They are an integral part of our lives, and everyone is so used to using them that they don’t even think about how the money came about. But this story is very interesting, and everyone should know it.
It is hard to imagine, but there were times when money did not exist at all. Each person provided for himself, grew food himself, built houses, sewed clothes. It was a period of traditional economy, when there was no exchange between people at all. Then the man realized that it was much more convenient to do one thing that turns out better than the rest, and share the fruits of his labor with his fellow tribesmen. This period, economists call the stage of the division of labor, when a natural exchange, or barter, appeared between people. Cows were exchanged for grain, skins for firewood, and salt for honey. But what if you have a big cow and you just need a new spear? Do not divide the cow into several parts! Then the man came to the understanding that you need to have one single product that can be easily exchanged for everything you need. From this moment, the real story begins about how money appeared.
Each nation had its first money. For the Slavic tribes, they served as animal skins and salt bars, the Indians of South America - pearls, in New Zealand there were large round stones with holes in the middle, and in China - shells of mollusk Kauri. But this "money" was not always convenient in exchange, they wore out, deteriorated, broke or were too heavy for transportation. Therefore, it was decided to replace them with metal bars, and later with coins.
The story of how money appeared in the usual form of coins for us begins in the
Lydian kingdom and Ancient China in the 7th century BC. They were minted from an alloy of gold and silver, depicting the symbols of the state and the ruling monarch. However, they did not immediately receive a wide circulation; people were more used to changing animal skins for tea and sugar. Only in the V century
BC in Persia, King Darius officially banned barter and ordered everyone to pay in coins. So minted money began to gradually gain popularity around the world.
The first paper money appeared in China at the beginning of the 10th century AD. They replaced coins in order to facilitate the wallets of the rich, who had to drag many kilogram bags of gold. China's paper money was not like modern banknotes. They were ten times larger, and rather resembled huge letters, rather than money.
The story of how money appeared in Russia stands apart. For a long time in Russia there was no money at all, and coins from neighboring countries were in circulation: eastern dirhams, European denarii. And only at the end of the 10th century under Prince Vladimir began the minting of the first silver coins, on which was the image of the prince and the coat of arms of the Rurikovich clan. However, not everyone used these coins, the people liked silver hryvnia more - Novgorod money in the form of long silver bars. By the way, the word "ruble" happened just because of this hryvnia, which was chopped into small parts in order to buy small goods.
In a word, one cannot say exactly where the money came from. They gradually arose throughout the world, among every nation. Only one thing remains clear - the history of money, although confusing, is very interesting.