Where does money come from?

Money is any kind of commodity that can perform the functions of medium of exchange, scale of value, standard of deferred payment and fully liquid means of storing wealth, can be regarded as money; commodities separated from commodities fixedly acting as general equivalents, is money; money is the product of the development of commodity exchange to a certain stage. The essence of money is the general equivalence[edit this paragraph] History of money Barter The history of human use of money arose in the era of barter. In primitive society, people used the bartering method to exchange the materials they needed, such as a sheep for a stone axe. However, sometimes there were limitations on the types of goods that could be exchanged, so they had to find an item that was acceptable to both parties in the exchange. Such an item was the primitive currency. Livestock, salt, rare shells, rare bird feathers, precious stones, sand and gold, stones, and other items that could not be easily obtained in large quantities were all used as currency at one time or another. Gold Currency Metal Currency After long years of natural obsolescence, the items used as money were gradually replaced by metals in the vast majority of societies. The advantage of using metal money is that it requires labor to make, cannot be obtained in large quantities from nature, and is also easy to store. Gold and silver, which were scarce, and copper, which was difficult to smelt, gradually became the main money metals. Iron money was used in some countries and regions.　Early metal currency was in the form of lumps, which needed to be tested for color with a touchstone and weighed at the same time. As human civilization developed, a more complex and advanced monetary system was gradually established. People in ancient Greece, Rome and Persia minted coins of uniform weight and color. This made it much easier to use money without weighing it or testing its color. These coins bore the head of the king or emperor, intricate coats of arms and seals to avoid counterfeiting.　The earliest metal currency in China was the copper shell of the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty, also known as the Bronze Age in Chinese history, was a time when a fairly well-developed bronze smelting industry contributed to the development of production and an increase in trading activities. As a result, the most widely circulated shell money at that time was inconvenient for trading due to its unstable source, so people looked for a more suitable material for currency, which naturally focused on bronze, and bronze coins came into being. However, this metal currency made of bronze was crude in its production, simple in design, irregular in shape, had no unit of use, and did not reach the level of widespread use in the market. Since its shape resembled the shell coins used as currency, it was mostly referred to as copper shells. Gold currency According to the archaeological material analysis, after the creation of copper shell, is the same time with the circulation of the shell money, copper shell development to the middle of the spring and autumn period, and the emergence of a new form of currency, that is, gold-covered copper shell, it is in the appearance of ordinary copper coins wrapped in a thin layer of gold, both flashy and wear-resistant. Copper shell is not only the earliest metal currency in China, but also the earliest metal currency in the world.　Gold and silver The main coins of western countries are gold and silver coins, and the secondary coins are made of copper and copper alloy. With the social and economic development of Europe, the volume of commodity transactions gradually increased, and by the 15th century, there was a deflationary panic in the economically developed states of Flanders and northern Italy. From the 16th century, a large amount of gold and silver from the Americas flowed into Europe through Spain, saving the European monetary system and creating the starting conditions for the subsequent development of the capitalist economy in Europe.　Paper money With the further development of the economy, metal money also showed inconvenience in use. Large amounts of metal coins were required for large transactions, and their weight and size were troublesome. The use of metal money also has the problem of wear and tear. According to incomplete statistics, since mankind has used gold as money, more than 20,000 tons of gold have been worn out in mints, or in people's hands, moneybags, and clothing pockets. So paper money appeared as a symbol of metallic money. The world's earliest paper currency was the jiaozi (交子), which appeared in the Sichuan region of China during the Song dynasty.