Money has been around as a concept for thousands of years. While you are used to seeing money in modern times as bills and coins, money has been represented by various items throughout history that have been regarded as having value. These were beads, barley, cowry shells, and even precious metals. In thinking of the concept of money, it is helpful to look at it as a token, or a symbol.
4500 BC: The ancient civilization of Sumer develops a “Temple Economy” that is based on the transport of valuable commodities, so it is commodity money. A commodity is usually something that comes from the earth, like gold or wheat or oil, that have a price or value that can be agreed on by most people.
Sumer is both a civilization as well as a region in the area known as Southern Mesopotamia, which is today modern Iraq. Trade has to do with the movement of valuable commodities to communities in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian Plateau.
4000 BC: Ancient Egyptians introduce bars of gold and these are used as standardized (something almost everyone agrees on) weight and way of exchange. Gold bars are poured in mines and then transported to populated areas for use in making coins.
3000 BC: Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, is the first region on earth to use the term “shekel” in reference to currency (the money, either paper or coins, accepted by a country ). “Shekel” may have originally meant a weight of barley, and one shekel weighs about 180 grams.
Tribes of Mesopotamia are also suspected of introducing the barter system, where services and goods are traded without the use of money.
1700 BC: The ancient Babylonians develop Hammurabi’s Code, a revolutionary code of law for its time that is established by Hammurabi, who is the sixth king of Babylon. Its contribution to the history of money is that it makes legal what money is in that country. For the first time, a civilization places amounts of interest on debt (money owed) and punishes people for violations of the law about money.
600 BC: Ancient Greece begins the practice of widely adopting coins, leading to the dominance of the Athenian Empire by their export (shipping out of the country) of silver coinage in the 5th century BC. At around the same time, Ancient Sparta begins to use iron as a form of currency to deter their citizens from dealing in foreign trade.
27 BC: The Roman Empire forms and features an autocratic government (one person holding power, such as a king) that is interested in both the issue and control of its currency. An unusually high amount of metal coinage exists, so that Roman citizens have the choice to put it to use for either trading or for their own personal savings. Minting coins finally becomes a political act since many of them bear the likeness of the Roman Emperor.
500-1500: The Middle Ages, particularly the late Middle Ages, sees the popularity of bills of exchange begin to flourish. Bills of exchange are like checks in that one party has to pay another a definite amount of money at some date in the future. Because bills of exchange can be used as a way of payment by a seller to make more purchases from his own suppliers, they are an early form of credit.
1600-mid-1800s: Japan during the Edo Period uses the koku as the basis of trade during its feudal system. The samurai receive their stipends in koku, too, which is a quantity of rice.
1660: The first banknotes are issued in Europe by Stockholms Blanco, the forerunner of the Bank of Sweden. Banknotes are made by banks and are promises of payment at some future date.
1800s: Much of the continent of Africa uses cowry shells as a form of currency. This has been a practice on the continent for centuries, already, ever since Arab traders brought them to Africa in the 13th century. The use of and trade of cowry shells is popular before the abolition of slavery, and Maldivian cowries in particular are brought to Africa from the West during the slave trade.
1900s: Representative money becomes popular in the United States; representative money is certificates like gold or silver certificates that is used as currency. This continues in the US until 1933.
Modern Era: Since 1971, the United States has been using a fiat money system. This means that all the money that Americans use is only valid because the US government has said that it is legal. This money system is also in effect in the European Union and with almost all other countries of the world right now.
- History of Money/Where Money Was Born
- Babylonia, A History of Ancient Babylon
- Money in the Ancient Wold: What is Bartering?
- The Sumerian People
- Ancient Egyptian Economy?
- ANE History: Babylonia
- Ancient History Sourcebook: The Code of Hammurabi
- The Hammurabi Code
- A Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia
- Shekel Clipart
- Mesopotamia
- History of Money
- Ancient Mesopotamia
- Money and banking in Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamian Money
- Trade and Barter in Ancient Greece
- The Economy of Ancient Greece
- Ancient Greek Economy
- Roman Economy – Prices in Ancient Rome
- Currency of Ancient Rome
- Ancient Roman Currency and Economy
- History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day
- The End of Europe’s Middle Ages – Economy
- Currency and Banking in the Late Middle Ages
- Money in the United States
- Cowrie Shells: The Currency of Africa
- The Everything Japanese Guide
Written by Michael S. Atwood