(History of Money) : Kimberly M. Cruz IV-Bethlehem Mrs. Geraldine Lim

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Guagua National Colleges

Guagua, Pampanga

Project in APan IV
(History of Money)

Kimberly M. Cruz IV-Bethlehem Mrs. Geraldine Lim

Evolution and History of money


The history of money spans thousands of years. Numismatics is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms. Many items have been used as commodity money such as natural scarce precious metals, cowry shells, barley, beads etc., as well as many other things that are thought of as having value. Modern money (and most ancient money) is essentially a token in other words, an abstraction. Paper currency is perhaps the most common type of physical money today. However, objects of gold or silver present many of money's essential properties. Money is what drives the world as people say. However, money has not been used since the beginning of mans existence. In fact, money is relatively young compared to all the years man has walked the face of the earth. If we could retrace the steps man has taken to eventually land on money, we would appreciate the innovation of man to trade.

Barter
Money, as we know it today, is the result of a long process. At the beginning, there was no money. People engaged in barter, the exchange of merchandise for merchandise, without value equivalence. Then, a person catching more fish than the necessary for himself and his group, exchanged his excess fish for the surplus of another person who, for instance, had planted and harvested more corn that what he would need. This elementary form of trade prevailed at the beginning of civilization, and may be found today among people of primitive economies, in regions where difficult access makes money scarce and, even in special situations, where people barter items without regard for their equivalence in value. This is the case, for instance, of a child who exchanges with his friend an expensive toy for another of lesser value, which it treasures. Goods used in barter are generally in their natural state, in line with the environment conditions and activities developed by the group, corresponding to elementary needs of the groups members. This exchange, however, is not free from difficulties, since there is not a common measure of value among the items bartered.

Commodity money
Bartering has several problems; most notably that it requires a 'coincidence of wants'. For example, if a wheat farmer needs what a fruit farmer produces, a direct swap is impossible as seasonal fruit would spoil before the grain harvest. A solution is to trade fruit for wheat indirectly through a third, "intermediate", and commodity: the fruit is exchanged for the intermediate commodity when the fruit ripens. If this intermediate commodity doesn't perish and is reliably in demand throughout the year (e.g. copper, gold, or wine) then it can be exchanged for wheat after the harvest. The function of the intermediate commodity as a store-of-value can be standardized into a widespread commodity money, reducing the coincidence of wants problem. By

overcoming the limitations of simple barter, commodity money makes the market in all other commodities more liquid. Many cultures around the world eventually developed the use of commodity money. Ancient China, Africa, and India used cowry shells. Trade in Japan's feudal system was based on thekoku a unit of rice. The shekel was an ancient unit of weight and currency. The first usage of the term came from Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC and referred to a specific weight of barley, which related other values in a metric such as silver, bronze, copper etc. A barley/shekel was originally both a unit of currency and a unit of weight.[11] Where ever trade is common, barter systems usually lead quite rapidly to several key goods being imbued with monetary properties [citation needed]. In the early British colony of New South Wales, rum emerged quite soon after settlement as the most monetary of goods. When a nation is without a currency it commonly adopts a foreign currency. In prisons where conventional money is prohibited, it is quite common for cigarettes to take on a monetary quality, and throughout history, gold has taken on this unofficial monetary function.

Metal
At around 5000 B.C. metal objects were used as money. The metals varied in value and included gold, silver, bronze, copper and other types of metals. These objects later developed to become coins, and around 700 B.C. the coins were given a certain value and therefore it made transactions much easier. The Chinese came up with paper money as early as 960 AD and this made trading and exchange of goods much more convenient.

Paper Money In the Middle Ages, the keeping of values with goldsmiths, persons trading with gold and silver items, was common. The goldsmith, as a guaranty, delivered a receipt. With time, these receipts came to be used to make payments, circulating from hand to hand, giving origin to paper money.

With time, in the same form it happened with coins, the government came to conduct the issue of notes, controlling counterfeits and securing the power to pay. Currently, all countries have their central bank in charge of issuing coins and notes. Paper money experienced an evolution regarding the technique used in their printing. Today, the printing of notes uses especially prepared paper and several printing processes, which are complementary to each other, assuring to the final product a great margin of security and durability conditions.

Checks As coins and notes ceased to be convertible into precious metal, money became more dematerialized and assumed abstract forms. One of these forms is the check that, for simplicity of use and security offered, is being adopted by an increasing number of people in their day-byday activities. This document, by which one orders payment of a certain amount to its bearer or to a person mentioned in it, aims mainly at transactions with bank deposits. The important role played today in the economy by this form of payment is due to the innumerable advantages offered by it, speeding transactions with large sums, avoiding hoarding and diminishing the need of change by being a document completed by hand in the necessary amount. Money, whatever the form it has, is not valuable for itself, but for the goods and services it may purchase. It is a sort of security giving its bearer the faculty of being creditor of society and take advantage, through his or her purchasing power, of all conquests of modern man. Money was not, hence, invented by a stroke of genius, but stemmed from a need, and its evolution reflects, at each time, the willingness of man to harmonize its monetary instrument to the reality of its economy.

Guagua National Colleges


Guagua, Pampanga

Activity # 1 (My First Java Script)

<html> <head> <title>My First Java Script</title> </head> <body> <script type=text/javascript> document.write(<h1>Hello World!</h1><br />); document.write(Kimberly M. Cruz <br />); document.write(IV-Bethlehem); </script> </body> </html>

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