Money Matters

One of the popular things in thisworld: MONEY. Sure you know that money is not everything, even thought it’simportant. It can make people happy, sad, proud, and angry. But how did moneycome into our lives?

Long before there was money,people bartered. Barter is the exchange of goods or services. The problemoccured when people couldn’t agree with the worth of things they want the otherperson had.  Because of that, peopleinvented money.

The first money was not coins orbank notes like those that we know today. People used commodities – basic itemsused by amost everyone – instead. Therefore, in the pastm the scene of peoplecarrying bags of salt, tea, rice, tobacco, or seeds or waking here and therewith their catte was a common thing. But carrying commodities around wascertainly no picnic!

Herodotus, a greek historian whois also known as the father of history in Western culture, stated that it wasthe Lydians, who were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silvercoins and also the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations.Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom located in Turkey. Nobody is really sure aboutthe date when the Lydians stared to produce the first coins. But the mostcommon belief was that they were minted during or at the beginning of the reignof King Alyatess, who ruled Lydia approximately 610-550 BC. Other countriessoon started to mint their own series of coins with specific values.

If the Lydians were the first touse coins, the Chinese were the first to use paper money. It started whenChinese merchants felt that it was not easy to carry around heavy coins. Tosolve problem, they left their coins with a trustworthy person who gave them aslip of paper on which was written how much money was with the person. Byshowing and returning the paper to the money holder, anyone could regain themoney.

With the introduction of coinsand paper currency, people stopped carrying round rice, salt or cattle whenshopping.