Money Matters

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

Long before there was money, people bartered. Barter is the exchange of goods or services. The problem occured when people couldn’t agree with the worth of things they want the other person had.  Because of that, people invented money.

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

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

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

With the introduction of coins and paper currency, people stopped carrying round rice, salt or cattle when shopping.