A Short History of Money

What kind of money do you use in your country?
How do people know how much money is worth?

Money makes the world go round," sang Liza Minelli in the hit musical Cabaret. But have you ever wondered just how long money has existed? The history of money is a fascinating one.

The word "money" comes from the Latin word moneta, which derives from the Temple of Hera the Moneta in ancient Rome. It was here that the Romans minted their money. However, the origins of money are much older. According to current records, the concept of money dates back at least 75,000 years. This speculation is based on a discovery in the Blombos Caves in South Africa. Like the Romans in the Temple of Hera, prehistoric peoples used the Blombos Caves to create their own money: shells of a pea-sized snail called Nassarius Kraussianus. These snail shells were turned into necklaces and used to trade.

Such shells form the earliest example of commodity money. Commodity money can include any commonly available commodity that has value. Apart from shells, this could be anything from livestock to whales' teeth. Spices were used as commodity money for hundreds of years. Even today, in the absence of other types of money, people have occasionally used commodities as money. In the Solomon Islands, shells are still in circulation. Turned into large necklaces, shells are then used during marriage proposals, where a father may charge twenty shell money necklaces for his daughter's hand in marriage.

The concept of commodity money helps us to understand how today's money was invented. Commodity money, as we have seen, derives from things considered valuable to the community. In some early cultures the principle of barter had been used. "We're both farmers; I grow wheat, you grow fruit. So let's trade my wheat for your fruit." However, there are problems with barter. For instance, we can only trade when fruit and wheat are both available at the same time. So the concept of money was born. Now I can buy your fruit with a couple of shells, which we both accept as having value. You in turn can use the shells to buy wheat. Simple.

So as we see, barter systems usually develop into a system of commodity money that is determined by value. Value is determined by either need or scarcity. In prisons, for example, cigarettes are often used as a system of currency. Why? Because they are scarce and prisoners don't have normal money. So cigarettes have a symbolic value over and above what they are worth as paper and tobacco. This example shows how money can be pretty much anything that people agree is tradable.

Moreover, what most forms of commodity money had in common was usability; easy to store, count and carry around. So, given these criteria, you can imagine what the next development in the history of money involved. Coins? Exactly. Gold and silver had been used as commodity money for thousands of years, usually in the form of rings or bracelets. However, it was the Lydians - who lived in an area that now lies in Turkey - who began making gold and silver coins around 560 to 660 BC.

Gold and silver became the standard commodities by which the value of other goods was decided. It was a short step from here to the birth of the next form of money: representative money. In this system, unlike commodity money, the material that the money is made of has little or no intrinsic value; unlike the kinds of currency used in the commodity system. Paper money is a good example of representative money. Such paper currency was originally backed by a bank's promise to redeem it for a given weight of precious metal, such as silver. This is the origin of the term British Pound; it was a unit of money backed by a pound of sterling silver. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many currencies were based on representative money through the use of the gold standard. The price of gold determined just how valuable the piece of paper in your pocket was worth.

With time, people decided that using gold to determine value was a bad idea. Why not just let government determine that, say, this coin or bank note was legal tender? Hence the next development: fiat money. Fiat is Latin for "let it be done." In other words, money became valuable, not because it had a value like gold, but because governments and the law determined its worth. A recent example of fiat money is the European Euro.

The last chapter in the history of money (so far) is credit money. Perhaps a better name for this would be virtual money, since it is nothing you can get your hands on, and it's a very long way from that cave in South Africa. Try getting prehistoric man to understand the notion of credit.

As for the future, well, that's anyone's guess. Care to place your bets? I'll give you two shells...

Doctor

Mom: Chad came by to see how you were.
Lully: Chad? He only just saw me three hours ago. What did he think was going to happen to me in three hours?

Mom: Oh, he's a conscientious doctor, isn't he?
Lully: Yes, he is. He's just a fine doctor and not a bad-looking one, either.
Mom: Oh, he's all right.
Lully: Do you know if he's coming to Helena's party tomorrow night?
Mom: Oh yes, he said... oh never mind.
Lully: What, Mama?
Mom: Nah, he's just teasing me.
Lully: What did he say?
Mom: Well, he just said he'll go if I go. He was just joking, of course.
Lully: What? So good old doctor Chadwick's in love with my mother!
Mom: Shhh, Lully, lower your voice. He's not.
He's just...
Lully: Flirting with you, that's what.
Mom: Don't make fun, Lully.
Lully: Oh, Mama, I wouldn't make fun of you about something like this. You deserve to have some love in your life.
Mom: I wouldn't go so far as to call it "love."
Lully: Call it whatever you want, Mama, but enjoy it.

Get Ready for a Hot Date

1. Take either a bath or a shower two hours before your date.

2. If you want to polish your nails, do so now. Choose a nail color that expresses your personality. Let dry.
3. Plug in iron and wait for it to heat. In the meantime, choose clothes for the evening. Iron clothes.
4. Put on makeup (if you wear it). Tell yourself you are beautiful at least ten times.
5. Wait for your date, or leave in time to meet him.
Here are two last things to remember:

If it's a blind date, don't go alone.
If he turns out to be a nightmare date, don't give up hope. There are always plenty more fish in the sea!

Recommendations

- Is the food good here?
- I believe so. Betsy and Paul eat here all the time.
- In that case, I'm certain the food is horrible.
- What do you mean?
- Have you forgotten? Their recommendations are always terrible.
- I suppose you're right. We'd better go somewhere else.

good restaurant

A Seafood and Steak Surprise

"Are you sure I look OK?" asked Raoul hesitantly.
"You look fine, Raoul!" said Steve, Raoul's roommate. "You should have left already.
You don't want to be late for your first date
with Marcy!"


"I'm leaving, I'm leaving! See you later," said Raoul.

"Hope you have a good time."

"I hope so, too," answered Raoul nervously.

They'd decided to go out for dinner. The restaurant they were going to was called "Sam's Seafood And Steak House" and was one of a chain of new restaurants. Although neither Raoul nor Marcy had ever been there before, they'd heard that the restaurant was having a half-price student special. "I hope you have an appetite tonight," Raoul told Marcy in the car. "I've heard that this restaurant has a huge seafood buffet and an All-You-Can-Eat Shrimp Special."

"Sounds great!" said Marcy. "I'm starving!"

When they arrived at the restaurant, it was crowded and very noisy.

"I guess we should have made a reservation," said Raoul.

After waiting almost an hour, they finally got a table. Unfortunately, it was in the smoking section. Not only that, but the tablecloth and silverware didn't look very clean.

Finally, the waiter came to take their order. "I'll have the roast beef, well-done, and corn on the cob," said Marcy. "And I'll have the All-You-Can-Eat Shrimp Special," said Raoul.

"Something to drink?" asked the waiter.

"Two mineral waters," said Raoul.

After a very long wait, their dinner arrived.

"This roast beef is awfully rare," said Marcy.

"And these shrimp have a strange, bitter flavor," complained Raoul. "Let's ask the waiter for our check."

On the way home, both Raoul and Marcy had stomachaches.

"It must have been that roast beef," said Marcy.

"And those awful shrimp!" cried Raoul. "If we had just gone out for a pizza, we would have enjoyed ourselves so much more!"

The next day, Raoul saw a review of
"Sam's Seafood And Steak House" in the college newspaper. It said, "We do not have a single compliment for this terrible restaurant! Whatever you do, don't go to "Sam's Seafood And Steak House!"

"Now they tell us!" cried Raoul, holding his stomach.

Past Form Of Modals: Review

Review

- I'm worried. Jack should have been on that train.
- He must have taken a later train.
- Well, he could have called!
- He may have left a message. Let's call home and check.

A happiest day

The Day I Met Mick

I'll never forget the day I met Mick Starlight. It began like a nightmare; everything went wrong. First, my alarm clock didn't ring. I must have forgotten to plug it in. I woke up late, and


I can't stand being late! Then I took a shower and of course, there was no hot water! I quickly got dressed, and ran out of the house without breakfast, still wanting to make it in time for class.
On my way to the university, I must have been driving too fast. A policeman signaled to me to stop. I was nervous, but when he came over, he smiled. He was really cute! Then I realized that
I must have looked a mess.

Not only hadn't I had time to put on any makeup, but I also hadn't ironed my shirt or dried my hair. I could have died of embarrassment. However, I smiled back at him, anyway.

"Was I driving too fast, Officer?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so," he answered.

I didn't know what to do then, so I just told him
I was sorry. Luckily, he was very nice, and only gave me a warning.

I soon reached the intersection where I had to turn. Looking up, I saw a beautiful sports car coming up behind me. As I got to the corner, the light turned red.
I stopped, but the sports car didn't, and went right into me! I couldn't believe it!

How could he have been so stupid, whoever he was? Fortunately, I was fine, but my car wasn't.

I stepped out of the car and was preparing to shout, when I saw the driver of the sports car. It was Mick Starlight! He felt so bad about my car that he not only paid for the repairs, but he also gave me tickets to his next concert! And of course, I never did make it to class.

words and expressions today

catch up: reach the point where someone else is

recognize (v)

1. know who someone or something is

in common (~)

shared with someone else


embrace (v)

put your arms around someone



intersection (n)

the place where something meets and crosses something else