Money talks

MONEY TALKS: THE HISTORY OF MONEY.

You go to the corner store and buy a carton of milk and some eggs. You pay and you leave. That´s normal, right? Your parents buy some new clothes for you: a pair of blue jeans and nice T-shirt. When the pay, they don´t even need money. They pull a piece of plastic from their wallet, give it to the cashier and that´s it.That´s what credit cards are for, right?It´s hard for us to believe that there once was a time when credit cards didn´t exist. There was even a time when money didn´t exist!

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There was a time when you had to go to the farmer for you milk and eggs. The farmer took something he or she needed, maybe some corn that you grew in your fields.This exchange of products is called barter.The barter system is based on reciprocal gifts: "If I give you some corn, will you give me some eggs?" Barter worked before money existed.Before that system, people didn´t have anything like money. They helped each other and gave each other things. If they killed a bison together, they would cook the meat and share it with everybody in the community. If a man needed to build a house or hut, other men helped him.Barter also included physical labor. Men and women worked in exchange for food. 

BARTER

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Commodities

Little by little, primitive money started to appear. People used something of value to pay for a product or service. In Mesoamerica, chocolate was a valued drink. Aztecs used cocoa beans as money. They were small, easy to carry and easy to count. For example, 20 cocoa beans paid for a tameme, a porter to carry your things home. Large amounts were paid in quachtli, a long white cape. A simple quachtli was worth 65 cocoa beans, but a well-made and decorated quatchli could cost up to 300 coca beans!5 green chilies= 1 cocoa bean1 large tomatoe= 1 cocoa bean1 avocado = 3 cocoa beans1 rabbit= 30 cocoa beans 1 turkey = 100 cocoa beans1 canoe= 1 quachtli100 sheets of amate paper= 1 quachtli1 warrior´s costume and shield= 64 quachtli1 string of jade beads= 600 quachtli

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Primitive money

Some commodities or primative money are: amber, beads, cocoa beans, coeries (large shells), drums, eggs, feathers, gongs, hoes, (a tool to work the land), ivoty, jede, kettles (to cook water(, leather, mats (to cover the floor), nails, oxen (strong bulls), pigs, quartz (a crystal), raice, salt, thimbles (a tool for making clothes), vodka and yarns ( wool for making clothes).Commodities had to be easy to store, easy to carry around and everybody had to agree about their value. They also needed to be dirable. Old and wrinkled cocoa beans had less value than new ones!An important barter or commodity was cattle. Cows, sheep and goats were important in aerly civilizations. They provided meat for food, wool and skins for clothes and bones for tools.Equally important was the ceremonial or religious value of cattle. They were used for offerings. Catle were a primitive form of money beacuse they could be counted. The more cows a family had, the richer they were.

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American Indians from the Northwest had plotlatch  parties or festivals. The purpose of a potlatch was to distribute the wealth. The potlatch party was hosted by a family or a clan.It was considered a great honor to host a potlatch party. It was a kind of competition: Who can give the most things to others?A hundred years ago, the Kirghiz people of the Russian steppe fields used horses as their commodity money and they gave the skins of lambs (young sheep) as small change.They only large civilization that was completely without commodity mones was the Inca culture in South America.The Incas traded products and labor: they used the barter system also to exhange labor. For example, they said, "If you help me build my house, I´ll help you harvest corn." Imagine a community where no money changed hands!Money wordsThe word dollar comes from the thaler coins from 16th century Europe.The $ sign originates from the Spanish word peso, with the vertical line representing the P.The words capital and cattle both have the same origin.

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Banks

Banks have always existed, rigth? No, wrong! Banks were inveted in Mesopotamia in the Middle East. Royal temples and places were considered secure places to keep the commodities. Temple officials gave out official receipts, just like a bank does today.Metal moneyAbout four thousand years ago, people started using metal as money, but coins did not exist yet. The weight of the pieces of metal determined their value.One of the first forms of coins was from China. The chinese used cowry shells as money and their first coins were cowry shells made of metal (bronze or copper).The first real coins were probably made in Greece about 630 B.C. The coins had a standard form, weight and purity of metal. Drachmas were made of silver and other coins were made of cheaper metal.

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Paper moneyThe invention of paper money happened in China, too. Around the year 1, 000, there wasn´t enough copper to make coins. Emperor Hien Tsung ordered the production of paper money. Later, the Chinise went back to the familiar metal coins.

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Untouchable Money

From 1870 to 1970, the value of money was linked to the value of the gold a country possessed.Nowadays, money exists mostly in electronic form. Your parents´ salaries are probably deposited in e bank account and your parents can pay theur expenses electronically or in a bank office. They use a credit card in the supermarket.People can have money, but it´s possible they never see or touch most of it!1. issuing bank logo                                  6. cardholder name2. EMV chip on samrt cards                     7.magnestic stripe3. hologram                                                8. card security code4. credit card number                               9. signature strip5. expiration dateThe first modern credit card was from the Bank of America in 1958.Now there are so many credit cards that some people collect them!Did you know that all credit cards are exactly the same size? They are exactly 85.60 x 53.98 mm!

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The dangers of credit cards

If you don't pay your debt completely, you can have serious problems. In a few years, you could have your own credit card and you should know how to use it. Let's look at an example Many adults ignore the dangers of speding with credit cards and they have terrible debts. Ask in your family if people have or have had problems with credit cards. You may be surprised about their experiences.

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To spend safely, you should: pay the total debt before you use your card again if you owe money to the bank, you should pay the debt. Don't buy other things What if you have an emergency and need some extra money? if you use your credit card, write down how much you spend. It is very easy to forget that you already reached your limit for the month.

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Savings Sometime you receive more money then you need, for example for your birthday. You can save this money and use it for emergencies. There is an expression that says, "money doesn't grow on trees". It means that it's not easy to get money, so be careful with it.

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