History of money

To say exactly when the history of money began,very problematic. In primitive times such a concept and the corresponding phenomenon did not exist. Relations that are similar to cash relations arose much later, together with the beginning of the process of exchange between people.

The history of money is directly related to the process of exchangeand a change in the forms of ownership. At the earliest stage, such an exchange, which we can now regard as a prototype of monetary relations, was of an accidental nature. At this stage, the commodity expressed its value by means of another, the equivalent commodity, which is opposed to it. They could be objects, food or animals. For example, the Aztecs used cocoa beans as money. To this stage there corresponded a random or simple form of ownership.

The history of money has passed several successivestages. The formation of agricultural and pastoral tribes contributed to the fact that the exchange of goods passed into regular form, and the random form of ownership was replaced by a complete one. This form differed from the previous one in that many goods were exchanged in exchange, which could be exchanged for different equivalent goods.

The exchange became more developed. However, at this stage the cost of each individual product has not yet received a complete expression, because the number of equivalent goods was uncertain. The cost had a rather heterogeneous expression. Therefore, gradually began to be allocated goods, which at that time in the market began to be used to express the unit of value. Gradually, one product was singled out, which assumed the role of a universal equivalent. At this stage, a monetary form of ownership arose. At this time, the history of the development of money began in the modern sense of the term.

In essence, money is of a commodity nature,but they can not be called ordinary goods. It is very specific, since it fulfills the constant role of the universal equivalent. Any product can satisfy any one human need and has a unit value for its consumer. Money also has a universal value (that is, it can be exchanged for any other). This property of money is called liquidity.

The universal equivalent (money) had to answerseveral mandatory requirements: it should not deteriorate during storage, it could easily be carried, it should be divisible without loss of general value.

The history of creating money on a metal basisbegins with the appearance of metal. First put into circulation gold and silver coins were made of precious metals. The first coins appeared in Lydia in the 7th century BC. Then they were made in Greece, Asia Minor and Italy. The most valuable were gold coins.

In Russia coinage was started in 9-10 centuries. The name "money" originated from the Tatar silver coin, which was called "tenga". Since the silver bars used as money, if necessary, were cut to pieces (they were delimas), then they began to be called subsequently "ruble".

But full metal coins, when theirThe nominal coincides with their real value, very expensive. The extraction of metals has ceased to keep pace with the development of economic relations. The solution to the problem was inherent in the very nature of money. Gradually, full-value metal money began to be replaced by signs of value. That is, the number of precious metals in coins began to decrease, while their nominal value remained the same.

As a result of this process, metal moneywere completely replaced by functional in form money from cheaper non-precious metals. In the end, money was made from paper. For the first time in circulation they were introduced by the Chinese in the 9th century. In Europe, they began circulating in paper form from around the 15th century, completely replacing real money out of circulation. In Russia, the history of paper money began in the 18th century, they were called bank notes.