Last Updated on August 13, 2021 by
The man got along quite a long time without money. He used what we call “the barter system”. If a man wanted something he did not make or raise himself, he found another person who had what he wanted and offered him something in exchange. The first kind of “money” used by primitive man usually consisted of things to wear or eat.
The American Indians used carved shells called “wampum”. Other types of “money” have been tobacco, grains, shins, salt, and beads. Eventually, pieces of metal replaced other kinds of money. The first people to use coined money were the Lydians, a people of Asia
Minor. In the eighth century B.C., they began to make pieces of metal money that were uniform in weight and design and which could easily be recognized. Gold and silver had been used as money long before that, but not in the form of coins. They had circulated as bars from which pieces were cut and weighed, but there was no guarantee of purity or weight. It was the Lydians who first thought of stamping pieces of metal with some symbol as a guarantee. Other peoples imitated them and gradually the use of coins became widespread.
After the Middle Ages, it was found that a “promise” to pay money, if there was confidence in the person who made the promise, would serve as well as real money. So goldsmiths, merchants, and money lenders began to issue notes, which were written promises to pay cash on demand.
This “credit currency”, since it was in the form of paper, was safer and more convenient to handle than gold. Soon banks, and then governments, began to issue such paper promises, and “paper money” came into existence.
Who First Invented Paper Money?
Paper currency first developed in Tang dynasty China during the 7th century.
When did we start using money?
Answer- 5000 B.C.
What was used before money?
Answer- A barter system is an old method of exchange. This system has been used for centuries and long before money was invented.
When were US dollars first used?
Answer- April 2, 1792.
Who invented money in world?
Answer- The Chinese were the first to devise a system of paper money, in approximately 770 B.C.
