You can not imagine the modern world without money. They are an integral part of our life, and everyone is so accustomed to using them that they do not even think about how money appeared. And this story is very interesting, and everyone should know it.
It's hard to imagine, but there were times when money did not exist at all. Each person provided himself, he grew food, built houses, sewed clothes. It was a period of the traditional economy, when there was no exchange between people at all. Then the person realized that it is much more convenient to deal with some one thing that is better than the rest, and share the fruits of their labor with fellow tribesmen. This period the economists call the stage of the division of labor, when a natural exchange, or barter, has appeared between people. Cows were changed for grain, skins for firewood, and salt for honey. But how come if you have a big cow, and you only need a new spear? Do not divide the same cow into several parts! Then the person came to the understanding that you need to have some one product that can be easily exchanged for all that is needed. From this point on, a real story begins about how the money appeared.
Every people had their first money. In the Slavic tribes they were animal skins and salt bars, in the South American Indians - pearls, in New Zealand there were large round stones with holes in the middle, and in China - shellfish shells Kauri. But these "money" were not always convenient in exchange, they were worn out, spoiled, broken or too heavy for transportation. Therefore, it was decided to replace them with metal bars, and later - with coins.
The history of how money appeared in the form of coins that we are familiar with begins in the Lydian kingdom and ancient China in the 7th century BC. They were minted from an alloy of gold and silver, depicting the symbols of the state and the ruling monarch. However, they did not immediately get a wide turnover, people were more likely to change the skins of animals for tea and sugar. Only in the V century BC in Persia, King Darius officially banned barter and ordered everyone to pay with coins. So minted money began to gradually gain popularity throughout the world.
The first paper money appeared in China in the early X century AD. They came to replace the coins, to facilitate the purses of the rich, who had to drag a multi-kilogram bags of gold. Paper money in China did not look like modern banknotes. They were dozens of times larger, and rather resembled huge charters than money.
A story stands out about how money appeared in Russia. For a long time there was no money in Russia at all, and in circulation there were coins from neighboring countries: eastern dirhams, European denarii. And only at the end of the 10th century under Prince Vladimir began minting the first silver pieces, on which was the image of the prince and the coat of arms of the Rurikovich family. However, not all used these coins, the people preferred the silver hryvnia - Novgorod money in the form of long silver ingots. By the way, the word "ruble" was due to this hryvnia, which was cut into small pieces to buy a small commodity.
In a word, it is impossible to say exactly where the money came from. They gradually arose in the whole world, for every people. Only one thing remains clear - the history of money, although confusing, but very interesting.