Money

Some say that money makes the world go round. Others, however, regard it as the cause of all the ills of mankind. But most people recognize that money is necessary, and we all should learn how to handle it properly. It’s hard to think there was a time when there was no money. The truth is that thousands of years ago nobody used it. To obtain the goods they needed, the ancient people used the barter that is, changing one thing for another. This form of exchange does not always work well, it was necessary that each person possessed something that interested him the other. Which was very hard to find, but not enough to say that even if the operation of barter was very complicated and it meant a breakthrough self-sufficient societies. There were many types of goods that meet the purpose sought something that always serve for the exchange, however, were always inconvenient to use: Attempt to use cattle, but not being able to split into small pieces, olive oil (very divisible but difficult to use). Other goods used were: beer, wine, cigarettes, some metals, etc.

The latter, metals were the best suited to the needs, it could be divided into small pieces, were easily distinguishable, they had their own beauty, were resistant and had an Eigen value to be scarce. Silver and gold were the metals used, initially in paperback form, and then more elaborately in currencies. However, the silver is tarnished, while, on the contrary, gold is not, which gave more benefits and made it easier to detect fakes. The only problem is that gold was scarce and coins had to be very small. The difficulty and danger that entailed carrying gold coins was clear: besides being heavy, they were easy prey for thieves, which is why it sought to replace the coins for something easier to carry that much weight and did not involve risk, being and it was paper money, commonly called “ticket” which, in principle, could be exchanged for gold. The Greek historian Herodotus credited with the invention of money to the Lydian’s, a people of Asia Minor that by the year 670 BC circulating coins made of an alloy of gold and silver. Long before them, in different cultures of the world already used a variety of objects such as money cowrie’s shells in India, rice in China, records of limestone on the island of Yap in the Pacific, plus seeds, snails and miniature tools, among many others.

In order to facilitate trade, people started using coins made of precious metals to pay for goods and services they needed. And it was the Chinese who invented paper and typography, the first to use paper money, in the 9th century. The value of this was secured by gold and silver from the Chinese government, with the advantage of not being as heavy as the coins. Paper money appeared in Europe during the 16th century and its value depended on who owned gold deposits in each country. At present, most countries have their own monetary system and print their own money, which, being made of paper has little value by itself. Paper tickets are a dollar value declared by the government of each country. There are a variety of currencies in the world. Some of the most popular are amongst others the British pound, the Japanese yen, the Russian ruble, the euro in Europe and the U.S. Dollar.