The History of Money

The history of money

1 CE

Historians find it hard to pinpoint the exact moment that the concept of money was invented. Obects such as animal skins, weapons and food items are likely to have been exchanged for other goods.

4,000 to 2,600 years ago

2

Around 2500 BC Ancient Egyptians were making metal rings which some historians think they used as money. By1100 BC in China, rather than exchanging obects like tools and weapons, a system of using miniature replicas of the obects to be traded were used instead of the objects themselves. In Lydia between 700 and 600BC the first coins, as we would recognise them, were made. Around the same time in China the first paper money was being used.

400 to 200 years ago

3

By 1600 AD Eurpoeans were using more and more metal coins, made with taken from their colonies overseas. In these early days of money, the use of precious metals in coins meant that the money could be traded because it held a value. In 1685 Canadian colonies began to use paper money too and this innovation led to a huge increase in international trade. If in the 1700s a pirate walked into your shop he might try to pay in peces of eight.

Money today

4

In the modern world many people use plastic cards cards called debit cards to pay for things. People also use money they don't even have yet by paying with credit cards. They then pay the money back later. People, and their confidence in the value assigned to money, are what determine whether the value of money goes up or down or stays steady.