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From Salt to Plastic

Salt:

Salt rations were served to Roman soldiers, but these rations were later replaced by money, or salarium. Cattle (pecus) were a medium of exchange in ancient Rome. From these Latin words, the terms “salary” and “pecuniary” are derived.

Metals:

In ancient Mesopotamia (18th to 16th century B.C.E.), silver was regularly used in business transactions. In ancient Egypt, copper, silver, and gold were used. During China’s Ming dynasty (1368-1644 C.E.), writes professor of Chinese history Hans Bielenstein, “copper remained the standard for lower denominations [of money], while silver increasingly came into use for the higher ones.”

Coins:

Disks of standard weight and value, made of a natural alloy of gold and silver known as electrum, were produced by the Lydians of Anatolia during the seventh century B.C.E. and were probably the first real coins; about a century later, the minting of coins developed in Greece.

Paper:

The world’s first paper currency appeared in 1024 in China, when unprecedented commercial expansion led to a coin shortage. Says Professor Bielenstein: “Experiments with so-​called Flying Cash had been made as early as 811, in T’ang times. The government had then issued money drafts which could be used in transactions and eventually exchanged for cash.” Starting with England in 1821, many nations adopted the gold standard, meaning that citizens could at any time convert paper money into the actual gold held in reserve by their governments. Since going off the gold standard, however, governments today simply declare their money to be of value, without having anything tangible to back it up.

Checks:

Developed by English bankers during the 17th century, checks are written orders for the payment of money through a bank; this method of business, being both safe and convenient, has become very popular and widespread.

Plastic:

Credit cards, called plastic money by some, were introduced in the United States in the 1920’s and soon caught the fancy of people all over the world. The convenience and other advantages they offer are partially offset, however, by the dangers of impulse buying and of living beyond one’s means.

Apparently by Nimrod’s time (c. 2270 B.C.E.), the basis for such a system was largely in place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that “from the third millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks.” The Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar​—the original name for what was later called Babylonia—​carried on “a surprisingly complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and providing letters of credit.”

A practice evidently peculiar to Mesopotamia was that of using capital as a commodity and charging interest for its use. Thus, money became a means of exerting economic pressure. Records unearthed in Babylonian ruins reveal business transactions that exploited the unfortunate circumstances of some of its citizens. Even then, the modern practice of unjustly profiting at the expense of others was in vogue. No wonder the merchants of Babylon and Nineveh were often spoken of with hatred and contempt.

Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were noted for their caravan trade. Later, to a great extent, the Phoenicians replaced land trade with commerce by sea routes. The ports of Carthage, Tyre, and Sidon became noted commercial centers. Trade was done on the basis of exchanging goods for goods until about the eighth century B.C.E., when the Greeks began using coined money as a medium of exchange. And according to The Collins Atlas of World History, “the centuries that followed [500 B.C.E.] were so marked by the development of trade, money, banks, transport, that several historians have compared them to the capitalist era, an understandable if exaggerated opinion.”

Actually, from early on, economic systems have been based on money.