Money Talks: The Hoistory of Money

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, rigth? Your parents buy some new clothes  for you:: a pair of blue jeans and a nice T-shirt. When they 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 credi cards are for, rigth?It's hard for us to believe that once was a time when credits cards didn't exist. There was even a time when money didn't exist!

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Barter

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. The 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 workedbefore money existed. 

Before thqat 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 hurt, other men helped him. Barter also included physical labor. Men and women worked in exchange for food. 

Commodities

Little by little, primitive money started to appear. People used soething of value to pay for a product or service. In Mesoamerica, chocolate was a valued drink. Aztecs used cocoa beans as money. They wew 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 quachtil, a long with cape. A simple quachtli was worth 65 cocoa beans, but a well-made and decorated quatli could cost to 300 cocoa beans!5 green chilies = 1 cocoa bean. 1 large tomato = 1 cocoa bean.1 avocado = 3 cocoa beans.1 rabbit = 30 cocoa beans.1 canoe = 1 quachtli. 100 sheets of amate paper = 1 quachtli.1 warrior´s costume and shield = 64 quachtli.1 string of jade beads = 600 quachtil. 

Primitive Money

Some commodities or primitive money are: amber, beads, cocoa beans, cowries (large shells), drums, eggs, feathers, gongs, hoes (a tool to work the land), ivory, jade, kettles (to cook water), leather, mats (to cover the floor), nails, oxen ( strong bulls), pigs, quartz (a crystal), rice, 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 durable. 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 erly 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. Cattle were a primitive form of money because they could be counted. The more cows a family had, the richer they were. 

American Indians from the Northwest had potlatch 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 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. The only large civilization tat was completery without commodity money was the Inca culture in South America. The Incas traded products and labor: they used the barter system also to exchange labor. For example, they said, "If you help me build mu house, I'II help you harvest corn." Imagine a community where no money changed hands!Money Words The world dollar comes from the thaler coins from  16th century Europe. The $ sign originates from the Spanish word Peso, with the vericl line representing the P. The words capital and cattle both have the same origin. 

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Banks

Banks have always existed, right? No, wrong! Banks were inventes in Mesapotamia in the Middle East. Royal temples and palaces were considered secure places to keep the commodities. Temple officials gave out officical gaves out official receipts, just like a bank does today. Metal Money About four thousand years ago, people starded using metal as money, but coins did not existe yet. The weight of the pieces of metal determinated their value. One of the firs forms of coins was from China. The Chinese used cowry shells as money and their first coins were cowry shel ls made of metal (bronze or cooper). 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 copins were made af cheaper metal.Paper Money The 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. Leter, the Chinese went back to the familiar metal coins.

Untouchable Money

From 1870 to 1970, the value of money was linked to the value of the gold a country possessed. Nowadays, money exist mostly in electronic form. Your parent´s salaries are probably deposited in a bank account and your parents can pay their 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. 2. EMV chip on smart cards 3. hologram 4. credit card nunmber 5. expiration date 6. cardholder name 7. magnetic stripe 8. card security code 9. signature strip The 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

Credit cards are wonderful if you have money to pay for what you buy. 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 an example. Imagine you go to a mall with your friends or with your parents and you buy clothes, a new camera and some DVDs. The total bill is two hundred dollars. You pay with a credit card. The next month, your bank statement arrives. You need to pay your credit card. Imagine you only have one hundred dollars to pay your debt. Now you will have to pay interest. This means you now owe more than one hundred dollars. If tou follow this pattern every month, you quickly owe more interest than the original expenses! For example, a one hundred dollar debt can became a five hundred dollar debt. You will never be able to pay back that much money.Many adults ignore the dangers of spending 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.To be on the safe side, you should not spend more than forty or forty-five dollars. What if you have an emergency and need some extra money? If you see your credit card, write down how much you spend. It is very easy to forget that you already reached your limit for the month.Savings Sometimes you recive more money than 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!