When paying in a store with cash or a card, a person sometimes does not realize that he is using one of the main discoveries of mankind, which has become a sign of an economic society.
In primitive society, there was no need for money. The human herd led a collective lifestyle, receiving everything necessary for life from nature. Everything that was mined became the property of the tribe. There was no private property as such, with the exception of individual items of clothing and personal use.
Prerequisites for the appearance of money
While humanity was engaged in joint work, there was no need for money. The property was distributed in accordance with the status of a member of the society.
Economists consider two reasons for the emergence of money. The subjective reason presupposes the elements of the contract in the choice of the equivalent of the goods. The objective reason is considered to be the natural consequences of the development of society, during which the division of labor began, firstly, and secondly, the expansion of the area of human settlement and the need for cooperation.
The division of labor made it possible to optimize all activities in a primitive society - everyone did what he did best. The coexistence of several tribes in close proximity, sooner or later, was to lead to cooperation, including economic cooperation.
One of the main factors in the development of society was the availability of tools. Consequently, the lack of consumables forced the tribe to seek cooperation with the tribe on whose territory there were deposits of silicon. Initial trade contacts were in the nature of barter exchange. With the expansion of the volume of commodity exchange, it became necessary to create an equivalent capable of assessing the amount of labor expended.
Thus, the subjective factor of the appearance of money appeared. The communities had to negotiate the physical embodiment of the equivalent, that is, the money.
What was used as money
Cowrie shells have long been one of the most common types of money in Asia, Africa and Oceania. Silicon arrowheads and metal rings were used as equivalent. Many nationalities used livestock as money. As an echo of those times, the term "capital" has come down to us, which originates from the Latin "caput", which means "head" - it is known that the counting of cattle is carried out by heads.
With the expansion of trade, there was a need for a bargaining chip. The exchange processes were supposed to reduce the value of the money itself, that is, dividing the cow used as a unit of value would reduce its value. Therefore, the use of bars of precious metals, which could be divided without losing their value, was the beginning of the emergence of the modern monetary system.
