The exact time of the appearance of money has not been established, however, as soon as the need arose for the interaction of people from different families and families, the beginnings of commodity-money relations began to take shape. Throughout its history, money has undergone significant changes.
Instruction manual
1
Stone money
Archaeologists discovered the first "coins" back in the Stone Age, when the division of labor and specialization began. Their role was played by stones with holes in the center. People begin to exchange objects of their labor and prey with each other for stone money.
2
Commodity money
In the process of evolution of man and society, money was transformed. Thus stood out goods that had an increased universal value. In different countries and cultures, these were cattle, fur, slave, grain, salt and, in the end, precious metals: silver and gold.
3
Metal money - coins
Commodity money was inconvenient in that it excluded the possibility of using it in everyday life (seasoning food with salt, grind grain into flour), since they had to participate in the exchange all the time. There was a need for a universal product that could be exchanged for anything. It had to meet certain requirements: to be rare and expensive, durable, well stored, easy to share. So people came to metals. At first, a universal means of payment (the so-called money) was made out of it in the form of tools, jewelry, and only later traders began to use ingots. The latter also had a number of inconveniences: the need for accurate weighing and sample determination. The state took over the function of quality and weight control, starting to mint coins.
4
Paper Money - Banknotes
Gradually, in order to increase the welfare of states and benefits, money producers move away from the face value of coins, mixing in impurities of inexpensive metals, removing quality and weight from the determining parameters. This path led to the emergence of banknotes, confirming their value only by bank receipts. Although initially, when paper money appeared, it was "secured" - it could be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold.
5
Plastic cards
The next round of monetary evolution is associated with the advent of electronic computers in the west. Already in the 1950s, the first attempt was made to issue plastic cards for settlements in restaurants. Two years later, banks praised electronic money and saw the future in them. The production of plastic cards was put on stream. In 1993, a computer chip was implanted into the card. Today, the vast majority of the money supply is only information that does not have a material appearance - electronic virtual money.
6
Plastic cards
The next round of monetary evolution is associated with the advent of electronic computers in the west. Already in the 1950s, the first attempt was made to issue plastic cards for settlements in restaurants. Two years later, banks praised electronic money and saw the future in them. The production of plastic cards was put on stream. In 1993, a computer chip was implanted into the card. Today, the vast majority of the money supply is only information that does not have a material appearance - electronic virtual money.
7
Electronic money
With the development of the Internet and the successful functioning of almost all types of business in it, the need for virtual settlements has arisen. The pioneer was the Webmoney payment system, which appeared in 1998.
