Evolution of money
Liza Minnelli sang that they make the world go round. According to popular belief, they were invented by the Phoenicians, but excavations indicate that their origins can be found in Asia Minor. What are we talking about? Money.
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors were engaged in gathering. Their transition to a sedentary lifestyle resulted in an increasing demand for goods and services. Money, of course, did not yet exist, but barter did. Initially, goods were exchanged for goods (known as barter), e.g. cattle for grain, hides for tools or weapons for food. And when task specialization flourished among our ancestors and there was a surplus of products as a result of their work, it was noticed that goods that could be sold in the fall were often in short supply in the spring. So people began to hoard the fruits of their labor and barter with others for products they did not have themselves. Usually, these items had a few basic characteristics: they did not spoil quickly, were easy to store, and were readily accepted by others.
Payoffs
Direct exchange of goods for goods, however, meant inconvenience due to the difficulty of determining the value of items. With time, equivalent exchange goods appeared — salt, grain, hides, etc. These goods were useful to everyone, besides they could be freely divided. In this way, they were assigned a certain value, higher…
