At First, there Was Nothing,
Then there is Everything !
Long long time ago, we exchange goods for a living. Sometimes I asked for 4 chickens to exchange my 1 bag of rice, but some other times, my friend is only willing to give 3 chickens. So as times go, more and more people do not like this constant changing of 'price' and they want standardization. So 'Money' is born.
We look down and there are some stones on the ground. First we 'define' the chicken as 10 stones, since my bag of rice is 4 chickens then my bag of price is worth 40 stones. So we started collecting stones instead of keeping too many cows and sheeps at home to represent our wealth.
It was all fine within our own family and friends because we trust each other. Then some stranger came and just pick up stones from the ground to buy my rice. Soon I ran out of rice and he has all the rice, so basically he took over my rice business and started to control pricing in my town.
So we need some special way to identify our special stones. I started marking all the stones that I used to buy and sell things. The chicken guy did the same. Soon all sort of marking stones are in the market and guess what ? A stranger came in and arbituary do some marking on the stone and took over the chicken business.
Then we learn that we have to 'standardize' the marking on the stones and it is too big a task for us because we are already full time producing rice and chicken. The stranger volunteer, "Since I am able to twist all the systems you guy come up with, apparently I am a smarter guy in this area. So if you let me come up with a special marking stones for you and everybody use that stones, there will be no problem !" He ended with a strong .. " Trust me !".
So the first 'modern day money' is born. It is a piece of metal with hard to replicate marking represending the value of the stones we used before - the stranger called it coin. So all of us including the rice and chicken producers keep our stones in the stranger's house. For each stone we deposit there, the stranger gives us 100 coins. Since then our buy and sell activities are better managed.
In case you haven't figured out yet,
the stone is called Gold today
and the stranger's house is called Bank
Our Stones
The Stranger's House
