The day is the most important economic institution. The reasons for their appearance and the metamorphoses occurring with them have always interested the best minds of mankind. That is why there are several theories of the origin of money, each of which has its own adherents.
The question of when the first money appeared is still considered debatable. Probably, money was born when a person first realized the need to conduct economic activity. In other words, money appeared at that historical stage when an objective need arose for it. It is assumed that the appearance of the first money took place in the VIII-VII millennium BC. It was then that the members of the primitive tribe began to have surplus products that could be exchanged for other necessary goods.
Basic theories of the appearance of money
There is a rationalistic and evolutionary theory of the appearance of money. The followers of the first theory believed that money is a universal medium of exchange, a special commodity that has the property of a universal equivalent. Through it, you can express the value of other goods. Usually the most expensive commodity acted as a means of facilitating the exchange operation. For different peoples, shells, pieces of skin, fur skins, ivory, grain, dried fish acted as money.
The followers of the second theory were convinced that money not only fulfills the function of a measure of the value (value) of various goods, their exchange pursues another goal - making a profit. That is why, over time, "commodity money" was replaced by metal money. Ingots of metals and alloys were much better able to play the role of a universal equivalent, since they were characterized by strength, divisibility and homogeneity, in addition, their exchange of money for each other bears all the signs of trade.
Initially, iron, tin and lead were used as metallic money goods. By about the 3rd millennium BC. gold and silver money began to come into use. Since that time, precious metals have become the universal equivalent of exchange.
Reasons for the appearance and distribution of paper money
For the first time, paper money began to be used in the 8th century in China. They were more likely checks or a kind of paper receipts than the usual banknotes for us. Merchants in the Chinese capital exchanged their hard earned cash for receipts. Upon arrival in the province, they could again get cash metal money for banknotes.
It is interesting that on the other side of the world, in Europe, traders and travelers followed a similar path. Here, the appearance of paper money was also associated with a kind of IOUs. When going on a journey, people deposited their gold or silver coins. In return, they received a kind of receipts, which, upon arrival in another city, could again be exchanged for gold or silver. Later, such receipts were transformed into promissory notes. The first paper money in the form familiar to us - in the form of bank notes - appeared in Europe in the 18th century. First in France (1712), then - in Austria (1762), later - in Russia (1769).
