A Brief History of the Evolution of Ancient Coins - The Money We Use Everyday, After Reading You'll Know Where It Came From

China is one of the earliest countries in the world to use money, and money appeared in primitive society five thousand years ago. China's currency in the formation and development, went through five major evolution: from natural money to artificial money evolution, from the messy shape to the evolution of a unified shape, from the local mint to the central minting of the evolution of the weight of the instrument to the evolution of Tongbao, Yuanbao, the evolution of the metal currency to the evolution of paper money. The four systems of metal coinage China has entered the stage of metal coinage during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, forming the four systems of cloth coinage, knife coinage, ant-nose money and ring money. With the development of history, the form of money is gradually unified, until today it evolves into the RMB that we use. First, the emergence of money Money on its nature, is the owner of the contract between the right of exchange, different forms of money in the essence of unity. Currency can be divided into physical money and the form of money, physical money itself is a special commodity, including the value of the physical body, such as cattle, sheep, gold and silver, etc.; and the value of the form of money is the contractual agreement, it itself does not have the economic value, only the value of the contract. Money is commonly known as the general equivalent. It represents the value of commodities, reflects the social labor, can be exchanged or buy all other commodities. It has five functions: scale of value, means of circulation, means of storage, means of payment, the world currency, the scale of value, means of circulation is its basic function. With the development of society, the form of money is also developing, the current emergence of electronic money is the latest product in the history of monetary development. Shell money In the early stage of social development, physical exchange appeared between people. However, the direct exchange of goods will often appear in many difficulties, different items have different values, it is difficult to make the equivalent exchange, the urgent need for a general equivalent, the currency from now on on the stage of history! Once shells, tortoise shells, cloth and silk, cocoa beans and other items have served as money in different times. Later, the precious metals have long served as the role of money. Second, the nature of money The nature of money is the owner of the contract between the right of exchange, money only formally different, the essence is the same. According to the commodity value of money can be divided into physical money and the form of money, but the purchasing power of physical money will also be affected by the value of their own commodities, usually the commodity value of physical money is less than the value of its contract as money. Currency is the spontaneous product of the development of commodity exchange to a certain stage, is fixed to act as a general equivalent of special commodities, is the inevitable result of the development of the inherent contradictions of commodities, the owners of commodities in exchange for money as a medium, that is to say, the nature of money is also a commodity. Gold and Silver Dollars Among all currencies, gold and silver currencies imply ""actual possession"", while fiat currencies represent ""IOUs + promises"". There is a fundamental difference between the two in terms of their value of "gold content". China's Renminbi falls somewhere in between. Although there is also an element of "debt-induced money" in the RMB, it is still, in its main body, a measure of products and services that have been completed in the past. The renminbi is not issued by a privately owned central bank that has to be collateralized by treasury bonds, as is the case with the US dollar, and in this sense, the renminbi's attributes are closer to gold and silver currencies. At the same time, since the RMB is not backed by gold or silver, it has the basic attributes of a fiat currency, and must rely on the coercive power of *** to guarantee its value. Currency is a solidified symbol of material civilization, an image of material civilization, and an element of material civilization. With language, values, race, religion, etc. constitute the civilized world of our planet. Types of money 1. Primitive money The history of the use of money by human beings arose in the era of barter. In the primitive society, people use the way of barter, exchange their own needs of materials, such as a sheep for two stone axes. 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. Such an object was the original currency. Livestock, salt, rare shells, rare bird feathers, precious stones, sand and gold, stones and other items that were not easy to obtain in large quantities were all used as money. Equivalent exchange 2, metal money After years of natural elimination, in most societies, the items used as money were gradually replaced by metal. The advantage of using metal money is that its manufacture requires labor and cannot be obtained in large quantities from nature, and it 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. With the development of human civilization, more complex and advanced monetary systems were gradually established. The ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians minted coins of uniform weight and color. In this way, when using money, there was no need to measure the weight or test the color, which was undoubtedly much more convenient. These coins bore the head of the king or emperor, intricate coats of arms and seals to prevent counterfeiting. Roman Gold Coins The earliest metal currency in China was the copper shell of the Shang Dynasty. The bronze smelting industry, which was quite developed at that time, contributed to the development of production and the increase of trading activities. At that time, the circulating shell coins became more and more inconvenient in the commodity trade, so the bronze coins came into being. However, due to the lack of technology, the bronze coins were roughly made, simple in design, not fixed in shape, without a unit of use, and did not reach the level of widespread use in the market. Today we generally refer to them as copper shells. Copper shells are not only the earliest metal currency in China, but also the earliest metal currency in the world. 3, paper money With the further development of the economy, more and more large-value transactions, the inconvenience of the use of metal currency is more and more obvious. So paper money appeared as a symbol of metal money. The world's earliest paper money in the Song Dynasty in the Sichuan region of China appeared in the Jiazi. Until it evolved into today's paper money. Paper money 4, electronic money Electronic money compared with traditional money, has a low cost, high efficiency, does not need to make materials, the cost is almost zero. The use of digital currency is electronic bookkeeping, no longer need currency clearing, almost eliminating the cumbersome aspects of physical currency transactions. Remote transactions or transfer remittances, digital currency transactions no longer need a third-party intermediary, can realize the real-time arrival function; can realize with the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence in the application of blockchain technology on the basis of the realization of all kinds of modern technology seamless docking, so as to be able to enhance the level of financial services and coverage, and to further enhance the service and work efficiency. Digital Currency Existing paper money or gold and silver have no identification function and cannot confirm the identity of the owner of the currency, digital currency can do at any time to record the user's account number, transaction records and other information. Therefore, in the field of payment, electronic money eliminating paper money is an inevitable trend. Fourth, the evolution of China's currency China has been using currency for 4,000 years, and is one of the earliest countries in the world to use currency. 1, the earliest currency: natural shells, tortoise shells, etc.; 2, metal currency: copper shells and cloth coins; 3, the Spring and Autumn Period currency: empty head cloth, Qi six-word knife, Chu ant-nosed money, Qin Huan money. 4. Huan money after the unification of weights and measures by Qin 5. Three-baht coins, four-baht coins, five-baht coins, leather coins, and platinum coins during the Western Han Dynasty . 6. Iron coins, five-baht coins, wrong knives, qi knives, big springs, small springs in the Eastern Han Dynasty. 7. The currencies of the Three Kingdoms and the two Jin dynasties: Shu Han (straight hundred coins); Wu (Daquan five hundred, Daquan dangqian). Liu Song (four-baht money); Northern Wei (Taihe five-baht, Yongan five-baht), etc.; 8. Sui five-baht money; 9 Tang Kaiyuan Tongbao money; (from Sui and Tang, silver began to enter circulation, serving as an equivalent exchange with coins) 10. Two Song Tongbao, Chongbao, Yuanbao; 10-1 Jiaozi (earliest paper money, only used in Sichuan) 10-2 Qianyin: not used as currency, only for exchange 10-3 Huizi: Issued in the Southern Song Dynasty, similar to the money citation 11. Yuan Tuanbao (silver circulation was strictly prohibited in the Yuan Dynasty, so Tuanbao was issued) 12. Ming and Qing Dynasties - round square-hole Tongbao, silver ingots, Yuanbao, silver dollars. - 13、Republic of China - silver dollars, fiat currency 14、Modern era - Renminbi A sketch of the evolution of China's ancient coins Sometimes, for special reasons, different self-governing bodies within the same country may also issue different versions of currency. Due to historical factors, there are three different legal tender currencies in China. Mainland China uses the Renminbi (RMB), Hong Kong's legal tender is the Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), and Macau's is the Macao Dollar (MOP). Taiwan, China uses the New Taiwan Dollar. V. Functions of Money The functions of money refer to the role of money in social and economic life. In the market economy, money has five functions: the measure of value, means of circulation, means of storage, means of payment and world currency. Among them, the scale of value and means of circulation are the two basic functions of money. As money belongs to the commodity, so he is the same as all commodities also has the use value and exchange value. When in different forms of value movement, the role of money is not the same: the measure of value, means of circulation, means of payment, means of storage and world money. Among them, the scale of value and means of circulation are the basic functions of money. The other three functions are derived functions formed on the basis of the two. Storage The measure of value is the most basic and important function of money, i.e., money serves as a measure to express and measure the value of all other commodities. The amount of value of a commodity depends on the amount of socially necessary labor time it contains. Here, socially necessary labor time is the intrinsic measure of commodity value. However, under the conditions of commodity economy, the size of the amount of value of commodities can not be directly expressed by labor time, but only through the value of money as a representative of the brief performance. It can be seen that the currency to perform the function of the scale of value, in fact, is to act as the commodity value of the extrinsic measure of value. And through a certain amount of money to show the value of commodities, is the price of commodities. In other words, price is the monetary expression of value. Money can act as a measure of value because money itself is a commodity and has value, and thus can be used to measure the value of other commodities. Functions Money performs the function of a measure of value by means of a price standard. In order to measure the size of various commodities, money itself must first determine a unit of measurement, i.e., a certain weight of gold or silver is technically determined as a monetary unit, such as a pound, two, money, cent, etc. This contains a certain metal weight of the monetary unit is called the price standard. Different countries have different monetary units of measurement and thus different price standards. For example, in China's history, ""兩", ""baht", and ""文 "became the main monetary units, i.e., price standards. In Britain, on the other hand, the unit of currency is mainly the ""pound"". The price standard is not an independent function of money but a technical provision derived from the value scale function. Although the function of money as a measure of value is to be realized by means of a price standard, the two are different categories. The difference is that: as a measure of value, money is the value that is condensed in the commodity in the incarnation of social labor, while the price standard is the unit of measurement of money. Sixth, the role of money (1) through the regulation of the total money supply, to maintain the balance of aggregate social supply and demand Monetary policy can be achieved through the regulation of the money supply to the aggregate social demand and supply of both regulation, so that the economy to achieve equilibrium. When the expansion of aggregate demand leads to an imbalance between supply and demand, it can control the amount of money to achieve the suppression of aggregate demand; when the aggregate demand is insufficient, it can increase the supply of money to raise the aggregate demand of the society, so that the economy will continue to develop. At the same time, the increase in money supply is conducive to the reduction of lending rates, which can reduce the cost of investment, *** investment growth and production expansion, thereby increasing aggregate social supply; conversely, the reduction of money supply will contribute to the increase in lending rates, thereby inhibiting the increase in aggregate social supply. Regulation (2) Control inflation by regulating interest rates and monetary aggregates to maintain the stability of the overall price level No matter how complicated the causes of inflation are, in aggregate terms, it is manifested in the fact that the money in circulation exceeds the total amount of goods and services that the society is able to provide at constant prices. An increase in interest rates postpones the purchasing power of existing money and reduces immediate social demand, as well as the demand for bank loans; a decrease in interest rates has the opposite effect. The central bank can also directly regulate the money supply through the financial market. (3) Regulate the ratio of consumption and savings in national income Monetary policy can influence people's propensity to consume and save through the regulation of interest rates. Low interest rates to encourage consumption, high interest rates are conducive to the absorption of savings. Absorption of savings (4) guide the transformation of savings to investment and realize the rational allocation of resources Savings is the source of investment, but savings can not be automatically transformed into investment, the transformation of savings to investment depends on certain market conditions. Monetary policy can influence the cost of investment and the marginal efficiency of investment through changes in interest rates, increase the proportion of savings conversion, and realize the rational allocation of resources through the effective operation of the financial market. After talking about the history of the development of money, here we tell two interesting stories about coins. Since the emergence of money, there have been many strange and weird coins in the world. The inhabitants of the East Pacific Islands once used a kind of huge stone as currency, some of which weighed as much as three tons, and it is inconceivable to imagine what it would be like to trade with it. The national flag and coat of arms of the Solomon Islands has the design of their coins, which are actually pig's teeth! Pig's Teeth In the fourth year of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Yuanhao, a strange coin appeared on the market. This coin was made by nitrating the skin of a white deer and then cutting it into small pieces a foot square and painting them with colorful pictures to form the highly valued ""White Deer Coin"". A piece of ""White Deer Coin"" was equivalent to 400,000 coins, which could buy more than 100 acres of the best farmland. Han White Deer Coin Because the denomination is too large, simply can not circulate in the market, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty will be "forced to buy and sell", he first put the White Deer Coin at 400,000 wen a price to sell to the vassals, and then the provisions of the provisions of the vassals of the pilgrimage to the Hajj must be paid tribute to the White Deer Coin, that is, and then the vassals of the White Deer Coin to the original return, equivalent to the white blackmail people a sum of money. Fortunately, this practice did not last long, or the lords must be bankrupt. Said so much, folks, you understand the knowledge of the coin?