Where did the first money in the world appear? Short message “History of money. Other protection elements

Money circulation is the circulatory system of the economy. Economic growth, economic activity and the well-being of society directly depend on how successfully it functions. However, real full-fledged paper money did not appear in the world at once. For many years in antiquity there was not even such a thing as a denomination. Next, we will consider where and when money first appeared, and for what purpose.

The content of the article:

Why did the money appear?

The very history of the formation of money began in those days when a person, in order to receive a certain product or thing, had to be offered something else in return. For example, if he needed an ax, then he looked for the one who had it, found out from its owner what he needed and made an exchange.

The same exchange scheme applies to modern world, but the difference is that in order to get the desired item, you need to pay money to the seller. However, even now the principle of exchange of goods is sometimes used.

Over time, the trade began to develop rapidly. Therefore, the participants in the trade (the seller and the buyer) needed to agree on a barter system, that is, to set a price for goods. The most ideal solution to the problem of commodity exchange is the appearance of funds. And since the times, such a concept has been invented as “ currency».

It should be clarified that money was not always in the form we are used to (banknotes and coins). There are examples in history when stones, cows and various objects were used as a form of currency.

In ancient times, each country had its own currency. For instance:

v Africa goods were bought for elephant wool;
v Iceland- for stone money;
on the islandFiji- for ivory;
v Siberian regions- for briquettes of tea;
on the Solomon Islands- for tobacco;
v South America and on Islands of Oceania- for pearls and shells;
v New Zealand- for stones with a hole in the middle, etc.

Not so long ago, in the 18th century AD, the entrance was ancient Indian money - wampum... They looked like necklaces, which determined by size, color and quantity, who should have given whom and how much tobacco, animal skins, etc.

When and in what year did the first money appear?

Over time, the role of money has changed slightly and many countries have switched from ordinary commodity exchange to metal. At first, ingots, metal stumps and bars were used, and after a certain period of time, metal objects ( spearheads and arrowheads, utensils, nails, etc.). It was from the moment such money appeared that great progress in the development of trade relations began.

According to historians, the first prototypes of coins appeared in the ancient Lydian kingdom and China in the 7th century BC.

The Milesian monetary system is considered the oldest issued currency. The money was named after the city of Miletus. The Lydians are the first to start producing coins of the same weight and type.

In the 5th century BC, the Persian king Darius officially abolished commodity barter in his state and introduced metal coins into circulation. In their manufacture, an alloy of gold and silver was used.

However, during the reign Alexander the Great(4th century BC) all of the above money was withdrawn from circulation and replaced by them. The decision to make money only from gold was made taking into account the following factors:

Corrosion resistant.
Long-lasting and rare material.
Minimal risk of inflation, since gold was appreciated in all countries.

From then until the 20th century, gold served as money. However, in China, at the same time, coins were made of iron and such a concept was invented as “ denomination". Thus, the money itself became cheaper to manufacture in comparison with their real price.

The first metal money came to the countries of Eastern Europe from Greece, but it was used as a means of accumulation or for the manufacture of necklaces and other jewelry. Pay with money in Eastern Europe people only started in the 7th century and for this, Arab and Byzantine silver coins were used.

Coin "Prince Vladimir"

From time to time in history there are cases when metal coins ceased to play the role of money and instead of them commodity exchange again began. So, in Russia in the 12-14th century AD there was “ coinless»Period due to the lack of silver supplies from abroad. The first coins in Russia began to be produced in the range of 960 - 1015, just at the time when he ruled. On one side of the coin, the image of the prince himself was applied, and on the other, Jesus Christ.

When and in what country did the first paper money appear?

Special attention should be paid to the story of how, when and where the first paper money appeared. For an accurate answer to this question, it is necessary to turn to historical facts.

In 600 AD, the Chinese preferred paper money to coins, considering the former to be a heavy burden. A novelty during that period was “ flying money» Feiqian(a kind of certificates - Fei-Chien) that resemble modern system remittances... The new money was called “flying” because the wind could easily carry it away, in contrast to the usual bundles of heavy coins of 3-3.5 kg. To buy a product that was absent in one seller's shop, it was necessary to purchase half of a banknote from him, and transfer the other to a merchant from another province and receive the desired product from him. Thus, the buyer no longer needed to carry a whole bag of metal with him.

However, the historical date when paper money first appeared is 910 AD. And the reason for this was the lack of raw materials for the manufacture of coins. In the 13th century in China, in order to simplify trade, the government decided to replace metal money with a document worth a certain amount. At first, they were in demand only among merchants.

Reference! Even in those days, there are cases of counterfeiting of paper money. In 1500 AD, the Chinese government decided to withdraw them from circulation due to overproduction. This ultimately led to 100% inflation.

The paper money was returned again, but in order to avoid further counterfeiting, it was decided to apply watermarks on them, use special paper and specific paint. Their sizes reached today's A4 format and were applied to them with images of people, birds, animals, landscapes, etc.

Over time, the Chinese began to export paper money to European countries, thereby instilling a culture of “such a currency”.

When did the first money appear in Russia?

Before the real currency in Russia, payment for goods and services was carried out by shells cowrie and necklaces made of precious metal. Approximately within the 8th century, they began to be used to calculate dirhams, silver kopecks, called kuns in those years. But already in the 10th century they were replaced by Western European money, denarii - coins made of thin silver with primitive images of kings. At the end of the same century, Russia already launched its own minting of silver and gold coins.

Own paper money in Russia appeared in 1769 after the decree of Catherine II of December 29, 1768. The reason for this was that the actively growing Russian economy in the 18th century gave rise to a severe deficit of settlement funds. There was not enough gold and silver, and it was extremely inconvenient to make large payments with copper coins.

For example, 100 rubles of copper dimes by weight was equal to 100 kg.

It is for this reason that the first cash in Russia was issued for the purpose of large-scale further payments. By order of Queen Catherine II, money was made only in large denominations (25, 50, 75, 100 rubles).

The first money was not colored and did not have an image on it. But there was text written in black ink on a sheet white.

For example, on 25 rubles, made in St. Petersburg, the text was applied: "The announcer of this state bill is paid by the St. Petersburg bank twenty-five rubles in current coin", and then the signatures of officials were put.

But such rubles were not considered ordinary receipts. And so that they could not be faked, they were specially watermarked. In addition, the inscriptions themselves were embossed relief embossing. These rubles could easily be exchanged for gold, silver or copper coins. But for the first 18 years after their appearance, such an exchange could be made only in two banks: in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Only since 1786, after the imposition of the tsarist decree, it became possible to exchange paper cash for metal in any bank or city in Russia. A year later, a 75-ruble note was withdrawn from circulation. And instead of it, small banknotes were introduced - 5 and 10 rubles. To start producing them in large quantities, a special Tsarskoye Selo Assignment Factory... Thus, full-fledged paper money appeared on the territory.

How paper money appeared in Europe

The first paper money appeared in 1644 in Sweden. There were copper coins in circulation, which were very heavy and constantly lost value due to the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Then the founder of the Stockholm Bank (Stockholms Banco) Johan Palmstruch (Johan Palmstruch) in the summer of 1661 printed temporary credit securities - Kreditivsedlar. But due to the fact that more papers were printed than the bank could afford, the directors were jailed, and the credit papers were withdrawn from circulation.

Norwegian businessman Thor Mohlen secured government support in 1695 and issued paper notes. When they were handed over to the population, people did not understand their essence and carried them back to exchange them for metal coins.

In England, due to power struggles and revolutions, paper money did not appear smoothly either. William Patterson - Scottish merchant and banker, founder of the English bank (1694), created the paper documents Goldsmithnotes, which were analogous to a bill. The paper made it possible to exchange it for gold. But in 1797 the "Restriction Act" was issued, according to which the Bank of England stopped exchanging bills of exchange for gold, and a fixed rate was set for securities, which essentially turned them into paper money. In 1820, these papers were again converted into bills of exchange for exchange for gold.

The transition to paper money in France was also not straightforward. During the reign of Louis XIV, the bank "Cashier for commercial accounting" was created (1776), which issued banknotes that reached 40 billion lire. But in 1797, the papers were canceled and the calculations began to be made in coins. Due to the need for high costs during the revolutions in the 19th century, France switched to paper money twice. Only in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, did paper money with a forced exchange rate appear.

When did the first paper money appear in the USA?

In the 1690s, the first paper banknotes were issued in the English Colony of Massachusetts. In 1775, Continental Money began to be issued.

At the start, banknotes worth 3 million silver dollars were issued. After 4 years, their amount exceeded $ 240 million. Because of this, the rate of new money fell very quickly and in 1780 they were withdrawn from circulation.

Another paper money - "Greenbacks" were printed during civil war(1861-1865). But also at the end of the war, they were eliminated.

The transition to paper money in the United States took place in 1933, when on April 5, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102. Under the new decree, people were prohibited from holding more than $ 100 worth of gold. For this, a punishment was imposed in the form of an exorbitant fine ($ 10,000) or 10 years in prison.

What money can appear in the future

When and in which country the first paper money appeared, we have already figured out. Now let's talk about the future.

Over the past 10 years, people have been massively switching to electronic money: Yandex.Money, PayPal, WebMoney, etc. In addition, an interesting version of the currency appeared on the world wide web, but far from the real world - cryptographic currency... On the this moment its most popular and largest type is Bitcoin... Futurogols predict changes in the coming years appearance money and payment methods.

So, there are several options for what the day will look like and it is possible that all of them will be present at the same time:

It is possible that there will be no cash at all. That is, people will see only columns with numbers on various electronic media, which will reflect the balance on the account, the amount to be paid on the loan, etc.
It is possible that they will be plastic. Credit and debit cards like this are already familiar to people all over the world.
They will be made of materials unknown to humans. For example, scientists in Britain not so long ago created a preliminary version of the space currency - And outwardly, such money may look like elegant disks on which solar system... At the same time, when creating them, scientists provided that they could withstand radiation from space.

Conclusion

In this article, we plunged into history and talked about how the first money in the world appeared. Their evolution from ancient centuries BC to the present time is quite large and interesting. But since progress never stands still, money will continue to evolve.

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The very first paper money in the world began to be produced by the Chinese. This happened as early as the beginning of the ninth century AD. Ancient paper money was large rectangular sheets with sides measuring about twenty by thirty centimeters.

The emperors of China have tried in the past to replace money made from metals with more convenient and affordable ones. The first attempts date back to the first century BC. Then parchment was used as a material. There was a number of reasons that led to the introduction similar innovation:

Copper. In China, banknotes were made mainly of copper, which was one of the most demanded metals of that time period. Therefore, the replacement of the material made it possible to use the valuable metal for other needs.
"Heavy" calculations. The average merchant's wallet began its weight at three kilograms. And large transactions could be accompanied by a whole wagonload of means of payment.
Development of the paper industry. Paper is a fairly strong, cheap and lightweight material. This led to the complete replacement of parchment and parchment money.
State income. The value of banknotes was guaranteed by the imperial power. But for this, during the exchange, officials charged a statutory percentage.

Distribution history

The first paper banknotes in China were issued exclusively for large amounts of 1000 conventional units. Therefore, they were used mainly by merchants. But around the thirteenth century, bills available to the general population were introduced into circulation.

At the same time, this innovation was appreciated by the Mongols. Within a fairly quick period, they switched to using paper certificates and brought them to the conquered territories. But there paper money quickly depreciated and did not cease to be in demand.

Japan introduced paper currency in the fourteenth century, also in the form of promissory notes for large sums. But already by the seventeenth century, a monetary reform was carried out, which led to the widespread use of paper for making money.

In Europe The merits of the bills were appreciated, but due to the undeveloped paper industry, leather from animals was used as the main material. It was only at the end of the sixteenth century in the besieged city of Leiden (the territory of modern Netherlands) that paper was first used. The reason was the lack of metal and leather due to the length of the siege.

The first official money was issued from paper in Stockholm already in 1660. Their developer was the banker Johann Palmstruch. A year later, British banks began issuing banknotes.

When did they start printing money in Russia?

In Russia, the use of printed bills began in 1769 under Catherine II... It was on her order that half a million metal rubles were sent to the main banks of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

And for the same amount, paper notes of various denominations were issued. In this way, the money was secured against depreciation and inflation.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Russia completely switched to paper money. For comparison: in Europe this happened only towards the end of the nineteenth century, and in the USA - in the thirties of the last century.

Do you know when the books appeared and what they looked like?

Where and when did paper money appear? In what century, in what country and under what ruler? The cradle of many amazing inventions - the Chinese Empire - and then bypassed other regions the ancient world, offering an unprecedented novelty at that time - paper money. Is it any wonder that this happened in China, where paper itself appeared for the first time in the world (105 AD)? Sources vary the time of the appearance of paper money, since in one case the date of birth of private Chinese money (the eighth century AD) is indicated, and in the other - public money (812 AD). The Tang Dynasty introduced the paper into circulation. Copper four-gram coins were then used for calculations. In the presentation of the author of the book "The smallest trifle" Vyacheslav Storozhenko, the birth of money from paper looks like a parable.

When and where did the first paper money appear?

The small coins of the yuan pao were the only remedy settlement in China. Even the most expensive purchases were paid by the yuan-pao. They had to be strung in bundles, and for especially large calculations the coins were loaded into carts. Such a circulation of money gradually became too inconvenient, but large denomination coins did not appear. Instead, the emperor decided to go with the tried and tested method of IOUs, exalting them to notes of credit. For the first issue, they took a noble quality paper, on which it was indicated that each such paper must unconditionally be exchanged for ten thousand copper coins. The paper money was called "pao-tsao". The money turnover has become noticeably simpler. There was no need to carry copper in caravans, the same equivalent now had a stack of papers, certified by the imperial guarantee. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The production of paper money turned out to be so simple that the rulers could not resist a huge issue. No matter how many copper coins there were in China, paper money grew even more. Faced with a shortage of coins, merchants, usurers and the rich began to get rid of paper, trying to collect more reliable copper... The exchange rate of paper money quickly collapsed. Even the imperial decree on the death penalty could not keep him, anyone who keeps more than fifty thousand yuan-pao in his possessions.

Despite the deplorable result of the first issue, the idea of replacing heavy small money with light and large money has not gone away. The second coming can be considered the revival of banknotes during the reign of the Northern Song Dynasty (from 960 to 1127). Legislatively, the paper currency "jiao-tzu" is fixed by the Decree of 1023. This time, the growth of the local economy, the increase in the volume of trade operations and the inconvenience of conducting settlements in small coins contributed to the addition of money circulation with paper. This time, the issue was carried out within reasonable limits, so the replacement of coins in large settlements with paper money was perceived positively. Traders have appreciated the advantage of transporting money over long distances. Coins were exchanged for paper, and at the end of the journey, the paper was again converted into coins by exchange. Finance seemed to fly from place to place, so paper money was nicknamed "flying" or "flying". In addition, the appearance of paper money in Europe was approaching.

China's influence extended to adjacent territories as well. Therefore, a semblance of paper money spread among the Mongols, but constant depreciation took the paper out of circulation. The first, replacing silver coin, was printed around 1600 by the trader Ise in the Yamad region. The innovation was taken up by the merchants of the Kinki area. In Western Japan, almost every clan issued such banknotes, which perfectly compensated for the shortage of coins.

When did paper money appear in Europe?

Before paper money in Europe, the circulation was of the receipts of usurers, the material for which was the skin of animals. A kind of ersatz paper money went to Leiden during its siege (late sixteenth century). The paper was not used purposefully, but out of despair. A means of calculation was required, but neither leather nor metal was at hand. For the appearance of official banknotes, an evolutionary leap was required, when the shops of the money changers were to be transformed into banking institutions.

Such a leap took place in the middle of the seventeenth century. The pioneer in the introduction of paper money was the Stockholm banker Johan (Johann) Palmstruk. Sweden is the country in which the first paper money of Europe appeared. The first banknotes date back to 1661 and do not differ that much from the previously known bills. Here are both seals and signatures of responsible persons. Have appeared different kinds obligations named "Credityf-Zedels". Each of them is nominated in a specific currency, which could be ducats, riksdalers and dalers, and the latter differed in exchange for copper and silver coins.

Foreign merchants reacted negatively to Swedish banknotes, as they did not understand what to do with the pieces of paper issued to them instead of the usual coins. It was difficult to exchange them back for coins, trading people suffered losses. In addition, due to bankruptcies, this money often became ordinary paper. For example, Johan Palmstuk's bank went bankrupt in 1963, and Palmstuk himself was put on trial.

When did the first paper money appear in France?

The French have gotten paper money thanks to neighbors across the English Channel. In 1716, the banker John Law arrived in Paris from Scotland and received permission from Louis XIV to open a bank. The issuance of paper money begins, which, by order of the king, are exchanged for coins from gold and silver... The turnover is provided by banknotes, and precious metals accumulate in the bank. Louis XIV liked the process, and in 1718 John Lowe's bank became state-owned.

But by 1719, difficulties began with the exchange of paper for gold and silver, since banknotes were printed at such a speed that they did not even have to think about their provision. Louis XIV himself comes to the aid of the banker, on March 11, 1720, having issued a decree banning money circulation with the help of coins. Even their storage was punishable by confiscation. But even the law could not deter those who wanted to get rid of the bills, especially after the case when three Parisian businessmen brought carts full of paper money to Lowe's bank. Thousands and even tens of thousands of Frenchmen rushed to the bank, hoping to exchange at least something for the rapidly depreciating paper. John Lowe himself repeated the fate of Ostap Bender in The Golden Calf: having escaped from Paris with eight hundred gold coins, he was detained while leaving France and robbed clean by border guards.

After November 1, 1720, the circulation of paper money in France ceased. The negative inoculation against unsecured emission was so strong that even half a century later, Louis XV promised the people that this would not happen again. Nevertheless, already in 1776, another private bank "Caisse D" Escompte "began printing banknotes from two hundred to one thousand livres, and from 1783 Louis XVI used paper issue to cover the budget deficit.

When did the first paper money appear in England?

In England itself, paper began to be used in calculations much earlier, so that John Lowe cannot be called an inventor. Since the middle of the 17th century, they have been in the form of receipts and receipts, which were issued by the Goldsmith family, which is why they were called Goldsmilh Notes ("Goldsmith's money"). The enterprise was successfully transformed into a bank, which led to the renaming of money into Bank-Notes (the familiar word "banknotes"). The Bank of England was formed in 1694. Using the experience of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which issued paper money in 1690 for payments to soldiers returning from Quebec, he also began to print banknotes. These numbered marks were produced in the range of five pounds to a hundred.

Since 1725, thousand pound notes have been in circulation. But smaller denominations (one and two pounds) appeared only in 1797. The Bank of Scotland appears in 1695 and conducts its own money issue, denominated not only in pounds, but also in guineas. The Bank of Ireland was formed in 1808, so Irish banknotes were also born.

When did the first paper money appear in the USA?

As we learned above, the first paper money in North America was not denominated in dollars at all, but in shillings and pounds. In fact, they were debentures upon payment of a military salary for an expedition directed against Canada. History repeated itself. Paper money was not recognized as reliable, and their rate was constantly declining. However, it didn’t come to a cancellation. Moreover, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Pennsylvania and some other states picked up the baton of paper emission. The Wild West was wild indeed. Since the US government did not have the right to issue its own, any clever person could open a bank, print your own banknotes, and then it is significant to go broke, leaving clients with a heap of unnecessary paper. Other equally clever people easily forged banknotes of those credit institutions that kept afloat, since degree of protection paper money left much to be desired.

The enormous military spending of the Civil War pushed both sides to create state-level banknotes. The Northerners' Congress Act of July 17, 1861 endows the Treasury right to issue Demand Notes and Legal Tender. These two types of banknotes could not be exchanged for either gold or coins, but were guaranteed by the government as a means of payment. Taking advantage of the tragic experience of unsecured issues, Congress limited the issue to $ 433 million. These banknotes are considered the first US state (federal) paper money. The banknote range ranged from five dollars to five thousand.

The Confederation of Southerners in the same year issues its own banknotes, outwardly similar to the money of the northerners. But military defeats sharply undermine the credibility of the Confederation dollars. The printing period for southern dollars lasted until 1865. But the fall in the exchange rate began already in 1863. Then the exchange rate is hundreds dollars in gold was two thousand Confederate dollars in paper. V Last year issues for one hundred dollars in a coin were given already six and even eight thousand banknotes. And after the defeat of the southerners, the confederation dollars completely lost the status of a means of payment. Most of the southern dollars were printed in Richmond.

When paper money appeared in Russia

"Everything new is a well-forgotten old", - adherents of old Russian leather money recall, speaking of the appearance of paper rubles. It is worth noting that scientists do not support the theory that in Russia the calculations were ever carried out with leather money. IOUs or even family bills could be leather. But still, they were very, very far from the level of the universal means of payment.

What year did you appear in Russia? Under Catherine II in 1769. The Empress's order provided for the transfer of coins to the Moscow and St. Petersburg banks in the amount of five hundred thousand rubles. The same amount was printed with paper money, which could immediately be exchanged for coin silver and copper. The reasons for the introduction of paper rubles were similar to those in China: it was extremely difficult to conduct large trade transactions with small copper coins. The first paper money in Russia did not possess the sophistication of printing, resembling signed and sealed receipts. The counterfeiters quickly saw the new way of enrichment and began to counterfeit paper money, which turned out to be much easier than making coins.

Due to a flood of counterfeits in 1786, print modified banknotes... Money takes on numbering and color. It was then that the nicknames "red" and "blue" were fixed for the denominations of five and ten rubles. These colors have survived the centuries, the collapse of the empire and even the collapse. Soviet Union... On banknotes, the positions "blue" and "red" are given to fifty rubles and one hundred rubles. The fate of Catherine's banknotes turned out to be sad. Once again, history has groped its usual rut: so much paper money was printed during the reign of Catherine that somewhere they gave coins for them much less than the face value, and in some places they refused to accept at all. Pavel had to solve the problem, and, moreover, radically. The emperor burned unsecured bills worth millions of rubles. But even this did not stop the advancement of paper money in Russian banking.

Paper money originated in different regions of the world for similar reasons. Firstly, there was always a shortage of metal, and often there were primary needs on which the accumulated reserves had to be spent, which led to the disappearance of coins from circulation. Secondly, small coins, which made up the bulk of the money supply, were extremely inconvenient in large settlements and during transportation. Thirdly, paper is a material that is lightweight, cheap and quite durable. Fourthly, when exchanging money for a coin in many countries, a commission was charged. Fifth, the issue of paper money could solve immediate problems with the state budget. All these points served to make money on paper and continue to remain a convenient means of payment.

Now the world is once again at a crossroads, after which money on paper will become a passed stage. What will replace them: cashless payments or digital cryptocurrency? Even the most reputable forecasters are afraid to answer this question. For example, Sweden, represented by the representative of the state bank Cecilia Skingsley, presented the future of the national currency in the form virtual E-crown, which should gradually replace cash coins and banknotes. One thing is clear: whatever appears on the horizon of the world financial system, it should be more convenient and secure than existing paper money.

Money appeared much later than the formation of the national economy: at first, the ancient tribes used means of exchange (cattle, fish, ornaments were exchanged for bread, meat, fabrics), and different peoples used different means for exchange. For example, in Mexico, cocoa beans were used as "money", on the islands of Oceania - pearls and shells, in Alaska and Canada - the skins of valuable animals.

Such commodity-exchange relations were not very convenient and it became necessary to create a universal exchange equivalent. This is how money appeared. At first they were metal (when manufactured in different countries materials such as copper, silver, bronze were used). Paper money appeared only in 1910 and since then has firmly entered our life.

The emergence of money

The first metallic money, minted coins, appeared in the 7th century BC. They quickly spread around the world, as they had a high cost with low weight and volume. In addition, they could be conveniently transported, stored, combined, and crushed.

With the expansion of commodity-production relations, a need arose to increase the value of the exchange equivalent, and silver and gold became the main money. 910 was a turning point in the history of money development - it was at this time that paper money appeared in China. But if earlier their essence was simply the obligation to issue natural money (of the corresponding value), today the paper banknotes themselves are money.

History of Russian money

Before the appearance of money in Russia, cowrie shells and necklaces made of precious metal were accepted as payment for goods and services. Around the eighth century, dirhams, silver kopecks, which were called kuns, appeared in Russia. In the 10th century, the kuns were replaced by Western European money, denarii - coins of thin silver, on the surface of which primitive images of kings flaunted. By the end of the 10th century in Kievan Rus own minting of gold and silver coins was launched.

As for the first paper money in Russia, they appeared under Catherine II in 1769: issued paper notes from 25 to 100 rubles could be freely exchanged for copper money. At about the same time, two banks were opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Money development

The very word "banknote" in translation from English means "bank record" - this name was not chosen by chance, this is clearly evidenced by the history of paper money.

So, the monetary system (both in Russia and in the world) began to actively improve with the emergence of banks. Banks initially performed exclusively the function of custodians of valuables and money. When depositing money, a person received a certificate, which indicated the amount that was in the bank's custody. This made it possible to pay not with heavy coins, but with light and convenient certificates. Over time, the certificates themselves began to be equated with money.

The "History of the Origin of Money" report, summarized in this article, will tell you about when the first money appeared and how it evolved.

Money History message

It is difficult to say exactly when the money appeared. After all, even the concept of money has been different at all times. During the existence of primitive people, exchange was practiced. For example, those who were engaged in pottery traded pots and jugs, blacksmiths - arrowheads, blacksmiths, and so on. Realizing that this is not very convenient, the concept came that the value of food and things is different.

Certain objects, goods or animals became the new monetary form. For example, on the island of Nauru, they paid for rats, in Ethiopia with bars of salt, the Aztecs - with cocoa beans, and the American colonists - with tobacco leaves and animal skins. The most common money in ancient times was cowrie shells: they were used in China, Africa, India and Thailand.

During this period, requirements for money were formed:

They should not deteriorate during transfer and storage.
Money should be light and small.
At the smallest division, their total value does not decrease.

The history of the emergence of metallic money

Around the 7th century BC, metal money took a strong place in economic system most countries in the world. The first coins were issued in Lydia in 687 BC. They looked like beans and were called standards, staters. Then they began to be made in Greece, southern Italy and Asia Minor. The greatest value was carried by gold coins, then silver and copper money went. In the 9th-10th centuries, coins began to be minted in Kievan Rus. Scientists suggest that they began to be minted in ancient China even earlier than in Europe. Moreover, special holes were made on the coins in the middle for more practical transportation.

Starting from the 17th - 18th centuries, the precious metals used in minting coins were replaced by "common" ones - aluminum and iron. The full-scale production of metallic money began in the 18th century.

The history of the emergence of paper money

The first paper money appeared in 800 BC in China. Their occurrence is due to the fact that the emperor was inconvenient to transport whole mountains of metal coins. And the Chinese came up with paper, from which they began to make money.

The first mention of paper money in Europe dates back to 1574. One Dutch city was besieged by the Spanish. The residents had no coins or leather left and they used paper to temporarily replace metal money for their ransom.

A few decades later, such a monetary equivalent appeared in Sweden. Then banknotes began to be issued in England. In Norway, the first paper money appeared in 1695, in Denmark in 1713. In France, banknotes entered circulation only in 1871.

V North America they appeared in 1690. Finally, the banknotes were legalized by the US Congress in 1775.

There is such a possibility that in the near future paper and metal money will be replaced by digital currency, since almost all large trade operations take place via the Internet.

We hope that the post on "The History of Money" helped you prepare for the lesson. And you can leave your message about money through the comment form below.