HOW THE UNINSPIRED MONEY EVOLUTION HAVE SHAPED HUMAN EXISTENCE

HOW THE UNINSPIRED MONEY EVOLUTION HAVE SHAPED HUMAN EXISTENCE

HOW THE UNINSPIRED MONEY EVOLUTION HAVE SHAPED HUMAN EXISTENCE
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Money has always fascinated mankind since it inception, the great political philosopher Aristotle observed that man is a social animal which establishes certain norms and regulations for their social interaction. Men therefore uses money as a mode of exchange to facilitate such social dealings from their economical aspect.

In the primitive years men users a system of trade by bater  to acquire certain societal needs, when people wanted to buy anything they had to give something else in exchange for it. For example, if a jeweller wanted to buy food stuffs from a farmer, he offered him jewelries in exchange. The farmer would accept it in exchange for what he has to offer. This was called the typical barter system which involved goods in exchange for goods.

In those primitive societies, goods served the purpose of money. But with the development of trade, the barter system was not capable to meet the growing demands of a convenient exchange system of buying and selling. People started using token or symbolic goods in exchange all over the world.

The American Indians used beads of shells, Fijians used whale’s teeth and North Americans used tobacco in their exchange system. The Roman army men were provided salt for their services.

The first form of money ever used in exchange for goods is coins. The early coins were of irregular shape and were stamped with rough designs. The money value of coins depended on the value of the metal that the coins were made of. Coins were mostly made of gold, silver or copper because they were precious and durable. The precise origin of money in the form of coins is not clearly known. As per the available sources, the earliest coins date back to about 700 B.C. when stamped pieces of metal were used as a medium of exchange by Lydians who lived in Asia. Some believe that the Chinese used coins even earlier than that. Coins were preferred because they were easy-to-carry and durable.

The first use of paper currency was known in China as early as the 9th century but it did not develop in Europe until the 17th century. The government of different countries favoured the use of paper currencies and coins to simplify the monetary dealings as what mattered were the money value printed or stamped on them and not their real value.

This is because the printed value on the currencies denotes their purchasing power as assured by the government. People accept a coin or currency in payment not because they value the coin itself but because they have confidence in the authority that issued them. As coins are heavy and bulky so larger payments are made in paper money issued by the proper legal authority.

Today, money remains a very pivotal part of human and the pursuits of human life and happiness largely depends on it, as stated by Aristotle in the evolution of the society, so its till date and many and more millions of human have done incredible things to acquire it.