Without money now days, people would be miserable. Money solves lots of problems, and sometimes even causes the problems. We currently live in an economy in which we need to spend every dollar wisely. No one ever really wondered where money actually came from, how it all happened. How did a piece of paper gain the power to own a person’s soul?
Before money, people bared. They simply exchanged a good service for another good service. For example, a bag of rice was exchanged for a bag of beans. Metal objects began being introduced as money in around 5000 B.C. The Lydian’s became the first in the Western world to make coins. Countries all around were beginning to use coins for different values. Metal was used because it was easy to deal with, work with and most importantly, could be recycled. It became easier for people to compare the cost of certain items people wanted using coins.
The earliest known paper money started in China, in around AD 960. It became very common worldwide. Making money out of paper was an idea that was loved by all since it was of less value to make. Representative money was traded/exchanged for a certain amount of silver or gold depending on the value given. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the majority of currencies were based on money through the use of the gold standard.
Soon, representative money moved on to be called Fiat money, which came from the Latin term ‘let it be done’. Money began to be given a value by government which enforced new laws. By the law, money in favor of some other form of payment was illegal.
Now, all you see is the money sign, $$. No one knows for sure how that started, but many historians believe it to be from the Mexican or Spanish form of ‘P’s, or pieces of eight. Studies came to show that the S was written over the P, making it look very much like the $ sign.
On March 10, 1862 the first US