Sometimes, it was hard for people to put a barter price on things. So instead of barter, people invented money as a form of payment. Money was not always in the fiat form we see today. In the beginning, things were not very consistent.The Aztecs used small doll figures made of solid gold to buy things.
The ancient Egyptians used ring money. Ring money was an actual ring made of bronze, copper, or gold. In ancient Egypt, people like to wear their wealth. When it came time to pay their bills, they simply pulled off a ring or two to use as payment.
The Celts in ancient Ireland also used ring money, plus bracelet money. The Celts also liked to wear their wealth.
The ancient Africans invented knife money.
In other places in the world, people tried to use rice, or bread, or chocolate as money. But that did not work very well. The food went bad, or it was eaten.
People soon learned that although many things would work as money, to be useful, the item or items they chose to use as money had to follow a few simple rules:
It had to be accepted as money by others
It had to have an assigned value or worth
It had to be easy to carry
It had to be made of a strong material, something that could be handed from person to person.
While the creation and growth of money seems somewhat intangible, money is the way we get the things we need and want. Here we look at the multifaceted characteristics of money.
