Money history

Money appeared on the base of barter – the direct non-money exchange of goods. And different areas of the world had different alternate materials to substitute money. For example on the islands of Oceania, money was the shells. In New Zealand people used the big stones with the holes in the middle as money. The furs and domestic animals were also used as money in many ancient countries of the world. Salt was the ancient money of Ancient Rus.

Gradually metals got the role of money at first in the form of bars of different shape and since 7th century it got the shape of coins. Before capitalism copper, silver and bronze were used as money. In some countries (in Assyria and Egypt) 2 milleniums BC people used gold as money. The rapid spread of coins is connected with their facility of keeping, dividing and connecting and their high value of little quantity that was rather comfortable for exchange. With the development of goods manufacturing, its value and the number of money operations increased rapidly. And the necessity to increase the value of the exchanged equivalent appeared. So, the gold and silver became the money goods as these metals were the most valuable as goods with the biggest value and not rather heavy in their volume.

The first paper money appeared in China in 812 year AC. And the earliest money production started in Stockholm in 1661.

Nowadays money is the commitment of the central bank that is spread all over the country and sometimes even in the whole world.