Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
History of money
Summary
The history of money is the development over time of systems for the exchange, storage, and measurement of wealth. Money is a means of fulfilling these functions indirectly and in general rather than directly, as with barter.
Money may take a physical form as in coins and notes, or may exist as a written or electronic account. It may have intrinsic value (commodity money), or be legally exchangeable for something with intrinsic value (representative money), or only have nominal value (fiat money).
Money was invented before written history began. Consequently, any story of how money first developed is mostly based on conjecture and logical inference.
The significant evidence establishes many things were traded in ancient markets that could be described as a medium of exchange. These included livestock and grain – things directly useful in themselves – but also merely attractive items such as cowrie shells or beads which were exchanged for more useful commodities. However, such exchanges would be better described as barter, and the common bartering of a particular commodity (especially when the commodity items are not fungible) does not technically make that commodity "money" or a "commodity money" like the shekel – which was both a coin representing a specific weight of barley, and the weight of that sack of barley.
Due to the complexities of ancient history (ancient civilizations developing at different paces and not keeping accurate records, or having their records destroyed), and because the ancient origins of economic systems precede written history, it has not been possible to trace the true origin of the invention of money. Further, evidence in the histories supports the idea that money has taken two main forms, divided into the broad categories of money of account (debits and credits on ledgers) and money of exchange (tangible media of exchange made from clay, leather, paper, bamboo, metal, etc.).
As "money of account" depends on the ability to record a count, the tally stick was a significant development.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (9)
CS-234: Technologies for democratic society
This course will offer students a broad but hands-on introduction to technologies of human self-organization.
MGT-482: Principles of finance
The course provides a market-oriented framework for analyzing the major financial decisions made by firms. It provides an introduction to valuation techniques, investment decisions, asset valuation, f
MGT-301: Foundations in financial economics
The aim of this course is to expose EPFL bachelor students to some of the main areas in financial economics. The course will be organized around six themes. Students will obtain both practical insight
Related lectures (39)
Social Influence and Choice
Explores social influence, democracy, individual autonomy, equality, and decision-making models.
Investment Choice: Electric vs Gasoline Cars
Analyzes the financial considerations when choosing between electric and gasoline cars over a five-year period, including subsidies, energy savings, and discount rates.
Related publications (8)
Democratic Value and Money for Decentralized Digital Society
Classical monetary systems regularly subject the most vulnerable majority of the world's population to debilitating financial shocks, and have manifestly allowed uncontrolled global inequality over the long term. Given these basic failures, how can we avoi ...
2020A method for improving ideas selection in crowdsourcing
This paper presents an early-stage application of the design science research (DSR) method to obtain a new idea selection approach, which uses clustering to filter ideas while taking into account the seeker’s goals and the learning dynamics. Most of previo ...
2019Bartering Books to Beers: a Recommender System for Exchange Platforms
Michele Catasta, Jérémie Rappaz, Maria-Luiza Vladarean
Bartering is a timeless practice that is becoming increasingly popular on the Web. Recommending trades for an online bartering platform shares many similarities with traditional approaches to recommendation, in particular the need to model the preferences ...
2017Related concepts (16)
Credit theory of money
Credit theories of money, also called debt theories of money, are monetary economic theories concerning the relationship between credit and money. Proponents of these theories, such as Alfred Mitchell-Innes, sometimes emphasize that money and credit/debt are the same thing, seen from different points of view. Proponents assert that the essential nature of money is credit (debt), at least in eras where money is not backed by a commodity such as gold.
Metallism
Metallism is the economic principle that the value of money derives from the purchasing power of the commodity upon which it is based. The currency in a metallist monetary system may be made from the commodity itself (commodity money) or it may use tokens (such as national banknotes) redeemable in that commodity. Georg Friedrich Knapp (1842–1926) coined the term "metallism" to describe monetary systems using coin minted in silver, gold or other metals.
Chartalism
In macroeconomics, chartalism is a heterodox theory of money that argues that money originated historically with states' attempts to direct economic activity rather than as a spontaneous solution to the problems with barter or as a means with which to tokenize debt, and that fiat currency has value in exchange because of sovereign power to levy taxes on economic activity payable in the currency they issue. George Friedrich Knapp, a German economist, invented the term "chartalism" in his State Theory of Money, which was published in German in 1905 and translated into English in 1924.
Related MOOCs (2)
Launching New Ventures
Develop your promising idea into a successful business concept proposal, and launch it! Gain practical experience in the key steps of the venture creation process, including marketing and fundraising.
Launching New Ventures
Develop your promising idea into a successful business concept proposal, and launch it! Gain practical experience in the key steps of the venture creation process, including marketing and fundraising.