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The Way Money Made the Modern World
Tanya4 min read·Just now--
Whether it’s barter, coins, or cryptocurrencies, money has always been central to the progress of human society.
For millennia, people have been on the lookout for an easy answer to a hard question: What makes strangers trust each other when conducting business? The answer helped build great civilizations, fund wars, spark industrial revolutions and turn small communities into world powers. The answer was money.
In today’s world, however, money seems to have become intangible. Payments get made electronically. Purchases get facilitated through clicks on our screens. Each day sees trillions of dollars worth of transactions conducted internationally at split-second intervals.
However, the beginnings of money were quite humble. Centuries before banks, stock exchanges and cryptocurrency came into existence, goods were swapped directly in bartering systems. Grains would be exchanged for cattle, skins for weapons, and so forth. Survival was achieved via the direct swapping of essential commodities. However, the problem of bartering was significant.
If a man fishing for his livelihood wanted new footwear, he had to find a cobbler who needed fish. This process became increasingly difficult as civilizations grew larger than a village or two. There emerged the necessity of some form of universal currency.
