When did money start? This is how it started!

Nowadays, it is taken for granted that everything that is bought is paid for with money. But this was not always the case: in the past, goods were exchanged or given away. However, since bartering always required long trading, because goods sometimes did not have exactly the same value, a universal medium of exchange developed.

When did money actually exist?

Money developed in all advanced civilizations and on all continents. It was used as a universal medium of exchange and consisted in early times of natural objects such as shells or certain stones.

1. Cereals, shells, livestock, silver and gold were the first means of payment. They were generally worth something and only available in limited numbers.
2. With these, a distinction was made between money in kind (natural objects) and jewelry money (decorative objects).
3. In the Middle Ages, metals and their weight were used as money. They were not exchanged by quantity, but by weight. In the process, the buyer and seller both weighed to prevent fraud.
4. Later, silver coins became the common means of payment. Gold was used mainly for trade abroad.
5. In the 11th century, there was already the paper money in China. In Europe, intangible money (that is, money in which the commodity value is far below the monetary value) was used in the 14th century in Italy. Hier gab es sogenannte Auszahlungsansprüche bei Banken, die auch auf eine andere Person übergehen konnten.
6. Zum ersten Weltkrieg wechselten die meisten Staaten von durch Edelmetall gedecktem Geld zu sogenanntem Fiatgeld.