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History of Money: Theories of Money Technologies Prehistory: Predecessors of Money and Its Emergence

The document provides an overview of the history of money, beginning with early bartering systems and the emergence of commodity and representative forms of money. It discusses the development of various coinage and paper currencies throughout history, from ancient civilizations through modern times. Theories on the origins and functions of money are also summarized, along with different measures used to classify the money supply.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
158 views22 pages

History of Money: Theories of Money Technologies Prehistory: Predecessors of Money and Its Emergence

The document provides an overview of the history of money, beginning with early bartering systems and the emergence of commodity and representative forms of money. It discusses the development of various coinage and paper currencies throughout history, from ancient civilizations through modern times. Theories on the origins and functions of money are also summarized, along with different measures used to classify the money supply.

Uploaded by

hasan jami
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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History of money

The history of money concerns the development throughout time of systems that provide the functions of
money. Such systems can be understood as means of trading wealth indirectly; not directly as with
bartering. Money is a mechanism that facilitates this process.

Money may take a physical form as in coins and notes, or may exist as a written or electronic account. It
may have intrinsic value (commodity money), be legally exchangeable for something with intrinsic value
(representative money), or only have nominal value (fiat money).[1]

Contents
Overview
Theories of money
Money supply
Technologies
Assaying
Prehistory: predecessors of money and its emergence
Non-monetary exchange
Emergence of money
Bronze Age: commodity money, credit and debt
1000 BC – 400 AD
First coins
Roman banking system
400–1450
Medieval coins and moneys of account
First paper money
Trade bills of exchange
Islamic Golden Age
Indian subcontinent
Tallies
1450–1971
Goldsmith bankers
First European banknotes
1971–present
Payment cards
Digital currency
Cryptocurrencies
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Overview
The invention of money took place before the beginning of written history.[2][3] Consequently, any story of
how money first developed is mostly based on conjecture and logical inference.

The significant evidence establishes many things were traded in ancient markets that could be described as
a medium of exchange. These included livestock and grain–things directly useful in themselves – but also
merely attractive items such as cowrie shells or beads were exchanged for more useful commodities.
However, such exchanges would be better described as barter, and the common bartering of a particular
commodity (especially when the commodity items are not fungible) does not technically make that
commodity "money" or a "commodity money" like the shekel – which was both a coin representing a
specific weight of barley, and the weight of that sack of barley.[4]

Due to the complexities of ancient history (ancient civilizations developing at different paces and not
keeping accurate records or having their records destroyed), and because the ancient origins of economic
systems precede written history, it is impossible to trace the true origin of the invention of money. Further,
evidence in the histories[5] supports the idea that money has taken two main forms divided into the broad
categories of money of account (debits and credits on ledgers) and money of exchange (tangible media of
exchange made from clay, leather, paper, bamboo, metal, etc.).

As "money of account" depends on the ability to record a count, the tally stick was a significant
development. The oldest of these dates from the Aurignacian, about 30,000 years ago.[6][7] The 20,000-
year-old Ishango Bone – found near one of the sources of the Nile in the Democratic Republic of Congo –
seems to use matched tally marks on the thigh bone of a baboon for correspondence counting. Accounting
records – in the monetary system sense of the term accounting – dating back more than 7,000 years have
been found in Mesopotamia,[8] and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists of expenditures, and
goods received and traded and the history of accounting evidences that money of account pre-dates the use
of coinage by several thousand years. David Graeber proposes that money as a unit of account was
invented when the unquantifiable obligation "I owe you one" transformed into the quantifiable notion of "I
owe you one unit of something". In this view, money emerged first as money of account and only later took
the form of money of exchange.[9][10]

Regarding money of exchange, the use of representative money historically pre-dates the invention of
coinage as well.[2] In the ancient empires of Egypt, Babylon, India and China, the temples and palaces
often had commodity warehouses which made use of clay tokens[2] and other materials which served as
evidence of a claim upon a portion of the goods stored in the warehouses.[11] Because these tokens could
be redeemed at the warehouse for the commodity they represented, they were able to be traded in the
markets as if they were the commodity or given to workers as payment.

While not the oldest form of money of exchange, various metals (both common and precious metals) were
also used in both barter systems and monetary systems and the historical use of metals provides some of the
clearest illustration of how the barter systems gave birth to monetary systems. The Romans' use of bronze,
while not among the more ancient examples, is well-documented, and it illustrates this transition clearly.
First, the "aes rude" (rough bronze) was used. This was a heavy weight of unmeasured bronze used in
what was probably a barter system—the barter-ability of the bronze was related exclusively to its usefulness
in metalsmithing and it was bartered with the intent of being turned into tools. The next historical step was
bronze in bars that had a 5-pound pre-measured weight (presumably to make barter easier and more fair),
called "aes signatum" (signed bronze), which is where debate arises between if this is still the barter system
or now a monetary system. Finally, there is a clear break from the use of bronze in barter into its
undebatable use as money because of lighter measures of bronze not intended to be used as anything other
than coinage for transactions. The aes grave (heavy bronze) (or As) is the start of the use of coins in Rome,
but not the oldest known example of metal coinage.

Gold and silver have been the most common forms of money throughout history. In many languages, such
as Spanish, French, Hebrew and Italian, the word for silver is still directly related to the word for money.
Sometimes other metals were used. For instance, Ancient Sparta minted coins from iron to discourage its
citizens from engaging in foreign trade.[12] In the early 17th century Sweden lacked precious metals, and so
produced "plate money": large slabs of copper 50  cm or more in length and width, stamped with
indications of their value.

Gold coins began to be minted again in Europe in the 13th century. Frederick II is credited with having
reintroduced gold coins during the Crusades. During the 14th century Europe changed from use of silver in
currency to minting of gold.[13][14] Vienna made this change in 1328.[13]

Metal-based coins had the advantage of carrying their value within the coins themselves – on the other
hand, they induced manipulations, such as the clipping of coins to remove some of the precious metal. A
greater problem was the simultaneous co-existence of gold, silver and copper coins in Europe. The
exchange rates between the metals varied with supply and demand. For instance the gold guinea coin
began to rise against the silver crown in England in the 1670s and 1680s. Consequently, silver was
exported from England in exchange for gold imports. The effect was worsened with Asian traders not
sharing the European appreciation of gold altogether – gold left Asia and silver left Europe in quantities
European observers like Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint observed with unease.[15]

Stability came when national banks guaranteed to change silver money into gold at a fixed rate; it did,
however, not come easily. The Bank of England risked a national financial catastrophe in the 1730s when
customers demanded their money be changed into gold in a moment of crisis. Eventually London's
merchants saved the bank and the nation with financial guarantees.

Another step in the evolution of money was the change from a coin being a unit of weight to being a unit of
value. A distinction could be made between its commodity value and its specie value. The difference in
these values is seigniorage.[16]

Theories of money
The earliest ideas included Aristotle's "metallist" and Plato's "chartalist" concepts, which Joseph
Schumpeter integrated into his own theory of money as forms of classification.[17] Especially, the Austrian
economist attempted to develop a catallactic theory of money out of Claim Theory.[18] Schumpeter's theory
had several themes but the most important of these involve the notions that money can be analyzed from the
viewpoint of social accounting and that it is also firmly connected to the theory of value and price.[19]

There are at least two theories of what money is, and these can influence the interpretation of historical and
archeological evidence of early monetary systems. The commodity theory of money (money of exchange)
is preferred by those who wish to view money as a natural outgrowth of market activity.[20] Others view
the credit theory of money (money of account) as more plausible and may posit a key role for the state in
establishing money. The Commodity theory is more widely held and much of this article is written from
that point of view.[21] Overall, the different theories of money developed by economists largely focus on
functions, use, and management of money.[17]
Other theorists also note that the status of a particular form of money always depends on the status ascribed
to it by humans and by society.[22] For instance, gold may be seen as valuable in one society but not in
another or that a bank note is merely a piece of paper until it is agreed that it has monetary value.[22]

Money supply

In modern times economists have sought to classify the different types of money supply. The different
measures of the money supply have been classified by various central banks, using the prefix "M". The
supply classifications often depend on how narrowly a supply is specified, for example the "M"s may range
from M0 (narrowest) to M3 (broadest). The classifications depend on the particular policy formulation
used:

M0: In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, M0 includes bank reserves, so M0 is
referred to as the monetary base, or narrow money.[23]
MB: is referred to as the monetary base or total currency. This is the base from which other
forms of money (like checking deposits, listed below) are created and is traditionally the
most liquid measure of the money supply.[24]
M1: Bank reserves are not included in M1.
M2: Represents M1 and "close substitutes" for M1.[25] M2 is a broader classification of
money than M1. M2 is a key economic indicator used to forecast inflation.[26]
M3: M2 plus large and long-term deposits. Since 2006, M3 is no longer published by the
U.S. central bank.[27] However, there are still estimates produced by various private
institutions.
MZM: Money with zero maturity. It measures the supply of financial assets redeemable at par
on demand. Velocity of MZM is historically a relatively accurate predictor of
inflation.[28][29][30]

Technologies

Assaying

Assaying is analysis of the chemical composition of metals. The discovery of the touchstone for assaying
helped the popularisation of metal-based commodity money and coinage. Any soft metal, such as gold, can
be tested for purity on a touchstone. As a result, the use of gold for as commodity money spread from Asia
Minor, where it first gained wide usage.

A touchstone allows the amount of gold in a sample of an alloy to been estimated. In turn this allows the
alloy's purity to be estimated. This allows coins with a uniform amount of gold to be created. Coins were
typically minted by governments and then stamped with an emblem that guaranteed the weight and value of
the metal. However, as well as intrinsic value coins had a face value. Sometimes governments would
reduce the amount of precious metal in a coin (reducing the intrinsic value) and assert the same face value,
this practice is known as debasement.

Prehistory: predecessors of money and its emergence

Non-monetary exchange
Gifting and debt

There is no evidence, historical or contemporary, of a society in which barter is the main mode of
exchange;[31]
instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economy and
debt.[32][33][34] When barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or potential
enemies.[35]

Barter

With barter, an individual possessing any surplus of value, such as a measure of grain or a quantity of
livestock, could directly exchange it for something perceived to have similar or greater value or utility, such
as a clay pot or a tool, however, the capacity to carry out barter transactions is limited in that it depends on a
coincidence of wants. For example, a farmer has to find someone who not only wants the grain he
produced but who could also offer something in return that the farmer wants.

Hypothesis of barter as the origin of money

In Politics Book 1:9[36] (c. 350 BC) the Greek philosopher Aristotle contemplated the nature of money. He
considered that every object has two uses: the original purpose for which the object was designed, and as
an item to sell or barter.[37] The assignment of monetary value to an otherwise insignificant object such as a
coin or promissory note arises as people acquired a psychological capacity to place trust in each other and
in external authority within barter exchange.[38][39] Finding people to barter with is a time-consuming
process; Austrian economist Carl Menger hypothesised that this reason was a driving force in the creation
of monetary systems – people seeking a way to stop wasting their time looking for someone to barter
with.[40]

In his book Debt: The First 5,000 Years, anthropologist David Graeber argues against the suggestion that
money was invented to replace barter.[41] The problem with this version of history, he suggests, is the lack
of any supporting evidence. His research indicates that gift economies were common, at least at the
beginnings of the first agrarian societies, when humans used elaborate credit systems. Graeber proposes that
money as a unit of account was invented the moment when the unquantifiable obligation "I owe you one"
transformed into the quantifiable notion of "I owe you one unit of something". In this view, money
emerged first as credit and only later acquired the functions of a medium of exchange and a store of
value.[9][10] Graeber's criticism partly relies on and follows that made by A. Mitchell Innes in his 1913
article "What is money?". Innes refutes the barter theory of money, by examining historic evidence and
showing that early coins never were of consistent value nor of more or less consistent metal content.
Therefore, he concludes that sales is not exchange of goods for some universal commodity, but an
exchange for credit. He argues that "credit and credit alone is money".[42] Anthropologist Caroline
Humphrey examines the available ethnographic data and concludes that "No example of a barter economy,
pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money; all available
ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing".[31]

Economists Robert P. Murphy and George Selgin replied to Graeber saying that the barter hypothesis is
consistent with economic principles, and a barter system would be too brief to leave a permanent
record.[43][44] John Alexander Smith from Bella Caledonia said that in this exchange Graeber is the one
acting as a scientist by trying to falsify the barter hypotheses, while Selgin is taking a theological stance by
taking the hypothesis as truth revealed from authority.[45]

Gift economy
In a gift economy, valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for
immediate or future rewards (i.e. there is no formal quid pro quo).[46] Ideally, simultaneous or recurring
giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community.

There are various social theories concerning gift economies. Some consider the gifts to be a form of
reciprocal altruism, where relationships are created through this type of exchange.[47] Another
interpretation is that implicit "I owe you" debt[48] and social status are awarded in return for the "gifts".[49]
Consider for example, the sharing of food in some hunter-gatherer societies, where food-sharing is a
safeguard against the failure of any individual's daily foraging. This custom may reflect altruism, it may be
a form of informal insurance, or may bring with it social status or other benefits.

Emergence of money

Anthropologists have noted many cases of 'primitive' societies using what looks to us very like money but
for non-commercial purposes, indeed commercial use may have been prohibited:

Often, such currencies are never used to buy and sell anything at all. Instead, they are used to
create, maintain, and otherwise reorganize relations between people: to arrange marriages,
establish the paternity of children, head off feuds, console mourners at funerals, seek
forgiveness in the case of crimes, negotiate treaties, acquire followers—almost anything but
trade in yams, shovels, pigs, or jewelry.[50]

This suggests that the basic idea of money may have long preceded its application to commercial trade.

After the domestication of cattle and the start of cultivation of crops in 9000–6000 BC, livestock and plant
products were used as money.[51] However, it is in the nature of agricultural production that things take
time to reach fruition. The farmer may need to buy things that he cannot pay for immediately. Thus the idea
of debt and credit was introduced, and a need to record and track it arose.

The establishment of the first cities in Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE) provided the infrastructure for the next
simplest form of money of account—asset-backed credit or Representative money. Farmers would deposit
their grain in the temple which recorded the deposit on clay tablets and gave the farmer a receipt in the form
of a clay token which they could then use to pay fees or other debts to the temple.[2] Since the bulk of the
deposits in the temple were of the main staple, barley, a fixed quantity of barley came to be used as a unit of
account.[52]

Aristotle's opinion of the creation of money of exchange as a new thing in society is:

When the inhabitants of one country became more dependent on those of another, and they
imported what they needed, and exported what they had too much of, money necessarily came
into use.[53]

Trading with foreigners required a form of money which was not tied to the local temple or economy,
money that carried its value with it. A third, proxy, commodity that would mediate exchanges which could
not be settled with direct barter was the solution. Which commodity would be used was a matter of
agreement between the two parties, but as trade links expanded and the number of parties involved
increased the number of acceptable proxies would have decreased. Ultimately, one or two commodities
were converged on in each trading zone, the most common being gold and silver.
This process was independent of the local monetary system so in some cases societies may have used
money of exchange before developing a local money of account. In societies where foreign trade was rare
money of exchange may have appeared much later than money of account.

In early Mesopotamia copper was used in trade for a while but was soon superseded by silver. The temple
(which financed and controlled most foreign trade) fixed exchange rates between barley and silver, and
other important commodities, which enabled payment using any of them. It also enabled the extensive use
of accounting in managing the whole economy, which led to the development of writing and thus the
beginning of history.[54]

Bronze Age: commodity money, credit and debt


Many cultures around the world developed the use of commodity money, that is, objects that have value in
themselves as well as value in their use as money.[55] Ancient China, Africa, and India used cowry shells.

The Mesopotamian civilization developed a large-scale economy based on commodity money. The shekel
was the unit of weight and currency, first recorded c. 3000  BC, which was nominally equivalent to a
specific weight of barley that was the preexisting and parallel form of currency.[4][56] The Babylonians and
their neighboring city states later developed the earliest system of economics as we think of it today, in
terms of rules on debt,[48] legal contracts and law codes relating to business practices and private property.
Money emerged when the increasing complexity of transactions made it useful.[57][58]

The Code of Hammurabi, the best-preserved ancient law code, was created c.  1760  BC (middle
chronology) in ancient Babylon. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi. Earlier
collections of laws include the code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur (c. 2050  BC), the Code of Eshnunna (c.
1930  BC) and the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (c. 1870  BC).[5] These law codes formalized the role of
money in civil society. They set amounts of interest on debt, fines for "wrongdoing", and compensation in
money for various infractions of formalized law.

It has long been assumed that metals, where available, were favored for use as proto-money over such
commodities as cattle, cowry shells, or salt, because metals are at once durable, portable, and easily
divisible.[59] The use of gold as proto-money has been traced back to the fourth millennium BC when the
Egyptians used gold bars of a set weight as a medium of exchange, as had been done earlier in
Mesopotamia with silver bars.

The first mention in the Bible of the use of money is in the Book of Genesis[60] in reference to criteria for
the circumcision of a bought slave. Later, the Cave of Machpelah is purchased (with silver[61][62]) by
Abraham, some time after 1985 BC, although scholars believe the book was edited in the 6th or 5th
centuries BC.[63][64][65][66]

1000 BC – 400 AD

First coins

From about 1000 BC, money in the form of small knives and spades made of bronze was in use in China
during the Zhou dynasty, with cast bronze replicas of cowrie shells in use before this. The first
manufactured actual coins seem to have appeared separately in India, China, and the cities around the
Aegean Sea 7th century BC.[67] While these Aegean coins were stamped (heated and hammered with
insignia), the Indian coins (from the Ganges river valley) were punched
metal disks, and Chinese coins (first developed in the Great Plain) were
cast bronze with holes in the center to be strung together. The different
forms and metallurgical processes imply a separate development.

All modern coins, in turn, are descended from the coins that appear to
have been invented in the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor somewhere
around 7th century BC and that spread throughout Greece in the
following centuries: disk-shaped, made of gold, silver, bronze or
imitations thereof, with both sides bearing an image produced by
stamping; one side is often a human head.[68]

Maybe the first ruler in the Mediterranean known to have officially set
standards of weight and money was Pheidon.[69] Minting occurred in the
late 7th century BC amongst the Greek cities of Asia Minor, spreading to
the Greek islands of the Aegean and to the south of Italy by 500 BC.[70]
The first stamped money (having the mark of some authority in the form
of a picture or words) can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Spade money from the Zhou
It is an electrum stater, coined at Aegina island. This coin[71] dates to Dynasty, c. 650–400 BC
about 7th century BC.[72]

Herodotus dated the introduction of coins to Italy to the Etruscans


of Populonia in about 550 BC.[73]

Other coins made of electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of silver


and gold) were manufactured on a larger scale about 7th century
BC in Lydia (on the coast of what is now Turkey).[74] Similar
coinage was adopted and manufactured to their own standards in
Greek drachm of Aegina. Obverse:
nearby cities of Ionia, including Mytilene and Phokaia (using coins Land turtle. Reverse: ΑΙΓ(INA) and
of electrum) and Aegina (using silver) during the 7th century BC, dolphin
and soon became adopted in mainland Greece, and the Persian
Empire (after it incorporated Lydia in 547 BC).

The use and export of silver coinage, along with soldiers paid in
coins, contributed to the Athenian Empire's dominance of the
region in the 5th century BC. The silver used was mined in
southern Attica at Laurium and Thorikos by a huge workforce of
slave labour. A major silver vein discovery at Laurium in 483 BC A 7th century one-third stater coin
led to the huge expansion of the Athenian military fleet. from Lydia, shown larger

The worship of Moneta is recorded by Livy with the temple built in


the time of Rome 413 (123); a temple consecrated to the same goddess was built in the earlier part of the
4th century (perhaps the same temple).[75][76][77] For four centuries the temple contained the mint of
Rome.[78][70] The name of the goddess thus became the source of numerous words in English and the
Romance languages, including the words "money" and "mint"

Roman banking system

400–1450
Medieval coins and moneys of account

Charlemagne, in 800 AD, implemented a series of reforms upon becoming "Holy Roman Emperor",
including the issuance of a standard coin, the silver penny. Between 794 and 1200 the penny was the only
denomination of coin in Western Europe. Minted without oversight by bishops, cities, feudal lords and
fiefdoms, by 1160, coins in Venice contained only 0.05g of silver, while England's coins were minted at
1.3g. Large coins were introduced in the mid-13th century. In England, a dozen pennies was called a
"shilling" and twenty shillings a "pound".[79]

Debasement of coin was widespread. Significant periods of debasement took place in 1340–60 and 1417–
29, when no small coins were minted, and by the 15th century the issuance of small coin was further
restricted by government restrictions and even prohibitions. With the exception of the Great Debasement,
England's coins were consistently minted from sterling silver (silver content of 92.5%). A lower quality of
silver with more copper mixed in, used in Barcelona, was called "billion".[79]

First paper money

Paper money was introduced in Song dynasty China during the 11th
century.[80] The development of the banknote began in the seventh century,
with local issues of paper currency. Its roots were in merchant receipts of
deposit during the Tang dynasty (618–907), as merchants and wholesalers
desired to avoid the heavy bulk of copper coinage in large commercial
transactions.[81][82][83] The issue of credit notes is often for a limited duration,
and at some discount to the promised amount later. The jiaozi nevertheless did
not replace coins during the Song Dynasty; paper money was used alongside
the coins. The central government soon observed the economic advantages of
printing paper money, issuing a monopoly right of several of the deposit shops
to the issuance of these certificates of deposit.[84] By the early 12th century,
the amount of banknotes issued in a single year amounted to an annual rate of
26 million strings of cash coins.[85]
Earliest banknote from
In the Indian subcontinent, Sher Shah Suri (1540–1545), introduced a silver China during the Song
coin called a rupiya, weighing 178 grams. Its use was continued by the Dynasty which is known
Mughal Empire. [86] The history of the rupee traces back to Ancient India circa as "Jiaozi"
3rd century BC. Ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the
world,[87] along with the Lydian staters, several other Middle Eastern coinages
and the Chinese wen.
The term is from rūpya, a Sanskrit term for silver coin,[88] from Sanskrit rūpa,
beautiful form.[89]

The imperial taka was officially introduced by the monetary reforms of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the
emperor of the Delhi Sultanate, in 1329. It was modeled as representative money, a concept pioneered as
paper money by the Mongols in China and Persia. The tanka was minted in copper and brass. Its value was
exchanged with gold and silver reserves in the imperial treasury. The currency was introduced due to the
shortage of metals.[90]

Both the Kabuli rupee and the Kandahari rupee were used as currency in Afghanistan prior to 1891, when
they were standardized as the Afghan rupee. The Afghan rupee, which was subdivided into 60 paisas, was
replaced by the Afghan afghani in 1925.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Tibet's official currency was also known as the Tibetan rupee.[91]
In the 13th century, paper
money became known in
Europe through the
accounts of travelers, such
as Marco Polo and William
of Rubruck.[92] Marco
Polo's account of paper Silver coin of the Maurya Empire,
money during the Yuan known as rūpyarūpa, with symbols of
dynasty is the subject of a wheel and elephant. 3rd century BC.
chapter of his book, The
Travels of Marco Polo,
titled "How the Great Kaan
Causeth the Bark of Trees,
Made into Something Like
Paper, to Pass for Money
All Over his Country."[93]
In medieval Italy and
The taka was widely used across Flanders, because of the
South Asia during the sultanate insecurity and
period impracticality of
transporting large sums of
money over long distances,
money traders started using promissory notes. In the beginning The French East India Company
these were personally registered, but they soon became a written issued rupees in the name of
order to pay the amount to whomever had it in their possession.[94] Muhammad Shah (1719–1748) for
These notes can be seen as a predecessor to regular banknotes.[95] Northern India trade. This was cast
in Pondicherry.

Trade bills of exchange

Bills of exchange became prevalent with the expansion of European trade toward the end of the Middle
Ages. A flourishing Italian wholesale trade in cloth, woolen clothing, wine, tin and other commodities was
heavily dependent on credit for its rapid expansion. Goods were supplied to a buyer against a bill of
exchange, which constituted the buyer's promise to make payment at some specified future date. Provided
that the buyer was reputable or the bill was endorsed by a credible guarantor, the seller could then present
the bill to a merchant banker and redeem it in money at a discounted value before it actually became due.
The main purpose of these bills nevertheless was, that traveling with cash was particularly dangerous at the
time. A deposit could be made with a banker in one town, in turn a bill of exchange was handed out, that
could be redeemed in another town.

These bills could also be used as a form of payment by the seller to make additional purchases from his
own suppliers. Thus, the bills – an early form of credit – became both a medium of exchange and a medium
for storage of value. Like the loans made by the Egyptian grain banks, this trade credit became a significant
source for the creation of new money. In England, bills of exchange became an important form of credit
and money during last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century before banknotes,
checks and cash credit lines were widely available.[96]

Islamic Golden Age


At around the same time in the medieval Islamic world, a vigorous monetary economy was created during
the 7th–12th centuries on the basis of the expanding levels of circulation of a stable high-value currency
(the dinar). Innovations introduced by Muslim economists, traders and merchants include the earliest uses
of credit,[97] cheques, promissory notes,[98] savings accounts, transactional accounts, loaning, trusts,
exchange rates, the transfer of credit and debt,[99] and banking institutions for loans and deposits.[99]

Indian subcontinent

In the Indian subcontinent, Sher Shah Suri (1540–1545), introduced a silver coin called a rupiya, weighing
178 grams. Its use was continued by the Mughal rulers.[86] The history of the rupee traces back to Ancient
India circa 3rd century BC. Ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the world,[87] along
with the Lydian staters, several other Middle Eastern coinages and the Chinese wen.
The term is from
rūpya, a Sanskrit term for silver coin,[88] from Sanskrit rūpa, beautiful form.[100]

The imperial taka was officially introduced by the monetary reforms of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the
emperor of the Delhi Sultanate, in 1329. It was modeled as representative money, a concept pioneered as
paper money by the Mongols in China and Persia. The tanka was minted in copper and brass. Its value was
exchanged with gold and silver reserves in the imperial treasury. The currency was introduced due to the
shortage of metals.[90]

Tallies

The acceptance of symbolic forms of money meant that a symbol could be used to represent something of
value that was available in physical storage somewhere else in space, such as grain in the warehouse; or
something of value that would be available later, such as a promissory note or bill of exchange, a document
ordering someone to pay a certain sum of money to another on a specific date or when certain conditions
have been fulfilled.

In the 12th century, the English monarchy introduced an early version of the bill of exchange in the form of
a notched piece of wood known as a tally stick. Tallies originally came into use at a time when paper was
rare and costly, but their use persisted until the early 19th century, even after paper money had become
prevalent. The notches denoted various amounts of taxes payable to the Crown. Initially tallies were simply
a form of receipt to the taxpayer at the time of rendering his dues. As the revenue department became more
efficient, they began issuing tallies to denote a promise of the tax assessee to make future tax payments at
specified times during the year. Each tally consisted of a matching pair – one stick was given to the assessee
at the time of assessment representing the amount of taxes to be paid later, and the other held by the
Treasury representing the amount of taxes to be collected at a future date.

The Treasury discovered that these tallies could also be used to create money. When the Crown had
exhausted its current resources, it could use the tally receipts representing future tax payments due to the
Crown as a form of payment to its own creditors, who in turn could either collect the tax revenue directly
from those assessed or use the same tally to pay their own taxes to the government. The tallies could also be
sold to other parties in exchange for gold or silver coin at a discount reflecting the length of time remaining
until the tax was due for payment. Thus, the tallies became an accepted medium of exchange for some
types of transactions and an accepted store of value. Like the girobanks before it, the Treasury soon realized
that it could also issue tallies that were not backed by any specific assessment of taxes. By doing so, the
Treasury created new money that was backed by public trust and confidence in the monarchy rather than
by specific revenue receipts.[101]

1450–1971
Goldsmith bankers

Goldsmiths in England had been craftsmen, bullion merchants, money changers, and money lenders since
the 16th century. But they were not the first to act as financial intermediaries; in the early 17th century, the
scriveners were the first to keep deposits for the express purpose of relending them.[102] Merchants and
traders had amassed huge hoards of gold and entrusted their wealth to the Royal Mint for storage. In 1640
King Charles I seized the private gold stored in the mint as a forced loan (which was to be paid back over
time). Thereafter merchants preferred to store their gold with the goldsmiths of London, who possessed
private vaults, and charged a fee for that service. In exchange for each deposit of precious metal, the
goldsmiths issued receipts certifying the quantity and purity of the metal they held as a bailee (i.e., in trust).
These receipts could not be assigned (only the original depositor could collect the stored goods). Gradually
the goldsmiths took over the function of the scriveners of relending on behalf of a depositor and also
developed modern banking practices; promissory notes were issued for money deposited which by custom
and/or law was a loan to the goldsmith,[103] i.e., the depositor expressly allowed the goldsmith to use the
money for any purpose including advances to his customers. The goldsmith charged no fee, or even paid
interest on these deposits. Since the promissory notes were payable on demand, and the advances (loans) to
the goldsmith's customers were repayable over a longer time period, this was an early form of fractional
reserve banking. The promissory notes developed into an assignable instrument, which could circulate as a
safe and convenient form of money backed by the goldsmith's promise to pay.[104] Hence goldsmiths could
advance loans in the form of gold money, or in the form of promissory notes, or in the form of checking
accounts.[105] Gold deposits were relatively stable, often remaining with the goldsmith for years on end, so
there was little risk of default so long as public trust in the goldsmith's integrity and financial soundness was
maintained. Thus, the goldsmiths of London became the forerunners of British banking and prominent
creators of new money based on credit.

First European banknotes

The first European banknotes were issued by Stockholms Banco, a


predecessor of Sweden's central bank Sveriges Riksbank, in 1661.[106]
These replaced the copper-plates being used instead as a means of
payment,[107] although in 1664 the bank ran out of coins to redeem notes
and ceased operating in the same year.

Inspired by the success of the London goldsmiths, some of whom became 100 USD banknote
the forerunners of great English banks, banks began issuing paper notes quite
properly termed "banknotes", which circulated in the same way that
government-issued currency circulates today. In England this practice continued up to 1694. Scottish banks
continued issuing notes until 1850, and still do issue banknotes backed by Bank of England notes. In the
United States, this practice continued through the 19th century; at one time there were more than 5,000
different types of banknotes issued by various commercial banks in America. Only the notes issued by the
largest, most creditworthy banks were widely accepted. The scrip of smaller, lesser-known institutions
circulated locally. Farther from home it was only accepted at a discounted rate, if at all. The proliferation of
types of money went hand in hand with a multiplication in the number of financial institutions.

These banknotes were a form of representative money which could be converted into gold or silver by
application at the bank. Since banks issued notes far in excess of the gold and silver they kept on deposit,
sudden loss of public confidence in a bank could precipitate mass redemption of banknotes and result in
bankruptcy.
In India the earliest paper money was issued by Bank of Hindostan (1770– 1832), General Bank of Bengal
and Bihar (1773–75), and Bengal Bank (1784–91).[108]

The use of banknotes issued by private commercial banks as legal tender has gradually been replaced by
the issuance of bank notes authorized and controlled by national governments. The Bank of England was
granted sole rights to issue banknotes in England after 1694. In the United States, the Federal Reserve
Bank was granted similar rights after its establishment in 1913. Until recently, these government-authorized
currencies were forms of representative money, since they were partially backed by gold or silver and were
theoretically convertible into gold or silver.

1971–present
In 1971, United States President Richard Nixon announced that the US dollar would not be directly
convertible to Gold anymore. This measure effectively destroyed the Bretton Woods system by removing
one of its key components, in what came to be known as the Nixon shock. Since then, the US dollar, and
thus all national currencies, are free-floating currencies. Additionally, international, national and local
money is now dominated by virtual credit rather than real bullion.[9]

Payment cards

In the late 20th century, payment cards such as credit cards and debit cards became the dominant mode of
consumer payment in the First World. The Bankamericard, launched in 1958, became the first third-party
credit card to acquire widespread use and be accepted in shops and stores all over the United States, soon
followed by the Mastercard and the American Express.[109] Since 1980, Credit Card companies are exempt
from state usury laws, and so can charge any interest rate they see fit.[110] Outside America, other payment
cards became more popular that credit cards, such as France's Carte Bleue.[111]

Digital currency

The development of computer technology in the second part of the twentieth century allowed money to be
represented digitally. By 1990, in the United States, all money transferred between its central bank and
commercial banks was in electronic form. By the 2000s most money existed as digital currency in banks
databases.[112] In 2012, by number of transaction, 20 to 58 percent of transactions were electronic
(dependent on country).[113] The benefit of digital currency is that it allows for easier, faster, and more
flexible payments.[114]

Cryptocurrencies

In 2008, Bitcoin was proposed by an unknown author/s under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. It was
implemented the same year. Its use of cryptography allowed the currency to have a trustless, fungible and
tamper resistant distributed ledger called a blockchain. It became the first widely used decentralized, peer-
to-peer, cryptocurrency.[115][116] Other comparable systems had been proposed since the 1980s.[117] The
protocol proposed by Nakamoto solved what is known as the double-spending problem without the need of
a trusted third-party.

Since Bitcoin's inception, thousands of other cryptocurrencies have been introduced.

See also
Axe-monies
Central bank
Commissary notes
Money creation
Monetary reform
History of banking
History of coins
History of the rupee
History of the United States dollar
Manillas
Trade beads

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Further reading
Alvarado, Ruben, Follow the Money: The Money Trail Through History (http://wordbridge.ne
t/wordpress/?page_id=106), Wordbridge 2013.
Bowman, John S. Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. (Columbia UP,
2000). ISBN 0231110049
Dean, Austin. China and the End of Global Silver, 1873–1937 (Cornell UP, 2020).
Del Mar, Alexander. (1885). A History of Money in Ancient Countries from the Earliest Times
to the Present (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LZ_RA9LMzF0C&printsec=frontcover&
dq=earliest+history+of+money&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sjfST97uKIaw8gO4sazCAw&ved=0CE8Q
6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=earliest%20history%20of%20money&f=false). London: George
Bell & Sons. ISBN 0-7661-9024-2
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political
History. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006) ISBN 0618133844
Eichengreen, Barry, and Peter Temin. The gold standard and the great depression (National
Bureau of Economic Research, 1997) online (https://www.nber.org/papers/w6060.pdf).
Eichengreen, Barry J., and Marc Flandreau, eds. The gold standard in theory and history
(Psychology Press, 1997).
Gernet, Jacques (1962). Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276.
Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0720-0
Jacob Goldstein (2020). Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing. Hachette Book.
ISBN 978-0316417198.
Irigoin, Alejandra. "The end of a silver era: the consequences of the breakdown of the
Spanish Peso standard in China and the United States, 1780s-1850s." Journal of World
History (2009): 207–243. online (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542758)
Jevons, W. S. Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. (London: Macmillan, 1875), .
Menger, Carl, "On the Origin of Money" (https://cdn.mises.org/On%20the%20Origins%20of%
20Money_5.pdf)
Richards, R. D. Early history of banking in England. London: R. S. King (1929).
Sehgal, Kabir (2015). Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us
(https://archive.org/details/coinedrichlifeof0000sehg). Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-
1455578528.
Weatherford, Jack. The History of Money. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1997).
The History Of Money For Kids (https://educounting.com/the-history-of-money-for-kids/)

External links
The Marteau Early 18th-Century Currency Converter (http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currenc
y/converter.html) A Platform of Research in Economic History.
Historical Currency Conversion Page (http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/
currency.htm) by Harold Marcuse. Focuses on converting German marks to US dollars since
1871 and inflating them to values today, but has much additional information on the history
of currency exchange.
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