Subsequently both livestock, particularly cattle, and plant products such as grain, come to be used as money in many different societies at different periods. Cattle are probably the oldest of all forms of money, as domestication of animals tended to precede the cultivation of crops, and were still used for that purpose in parts of Africa in the middle of the 20th century.
The main use, and probable motivation for its development, is for keeping accounts.
Banking originates in Babylonia out of the activities of temples and palaces which provided safe places for the storage of valuables. Initially deposits of grain are accepted and later other goods including cattle, agricultural implements, and precious metals.
Given the limited range of uses of money in certain ancient civilizations, the completion of large-scale and long-term projects was usually based on detailed state planning, often involving slavery. Similarly, the much later but rigidly hierarchical civilization of the Incas in Peru managed without money at all.
The state guarantee, probably of both the weight and the purity of her silver ingots, helps their wider acceptance as money.
The Code of Hammurabi includes laws governing banking operations.
The Chinese character for "money" originally represented a cowrie shell. Cowries have been used as money in many different places at different periods. In parts of Africa they were used for this purpose as recently as the middle of the 20th century.
These were metal models of valuable implements that had previously been accepted in commercial exchanges, e.g. spades, hoes and knives.
The Biblical account of their encounter is probably the best known example of competitive gift exchange.
Herodotus criticises the gross commercialism of the Lydians who are not only the first people to coin money but also the first to open permanent retail shops.
The earliest coins made in Lydia, Asia Minor, consisted of electrum, a naturally occurring amalgam of gold and silver.
Pythius, who operates throughout western Asia Minor at the beginning of the 5th century BC, is the first banker in the area of Greece and Asia Minor of whom we have records. Many of the early bankers in Greek city states were Greek city states were "metics" or foreign residents.
The date is uncertain but these were probably at least roughly contemporary with the development of coinage in the West, and possibly much earlier. Being made of base metal the Chinese coins were of relatively low value and therefore inconvenient for expensive purchases.
Aegina (c. 595 BC), Athens (c. 575 BC), and Corinth (c. 570 BC) start to mint their own coins. Prior to the introduction of coinage the Athenians had used iron spits or elongated nails as money.
During the reign of Croesus the Lydians began to produce coins of pure metal instead of electrum. This is the world's first bimetallic coinage.
As a result, use of coins spreads to Persia. Unlike the Greeks the Persians use mainly gold coins in preference to silver.
These coins are first produced by the tyrant Peisistratus, using silver from the Laurion mines 25 miles south of Athens.
Themistocles subsequently persuades the Athenians to use some of the proceeds to build a fleet of warships.
Greek civilization is saved by the victory of the Athenian fleet over the Persians.
Sparta releases 20,000 slaves from the mines and cuts off supplies of silver to Athens.
The Athenian public hoards silver coins which, as a result, quickly disappear from circulation, leaving only the inferior bronze ones.
In the play Aristophanes refers to how the new, inferior coins have displaced the old superior ones from circulation - probably the world's first statement of Gresham's law, that bad money drives out good.
Pasion, a slave, becomes the wealthiest and most famous Greek banker and gains his freedom and Athenian citizenship in the process. Greek banking transactions are carried out primarily in cash.
The cackling of geese in the capitol, where the city's reserves of money are kept, alerts the defenders. The grateful Romans build a shrine to Moneta, the goddess of warning, and from Moneta the words money and mint are derived.
Philip unites Greece and Macedonia. During his reign he deliberately mints far more coins than required for the immediate needs of his kingdom, probably to support the campaign against Persia that he was planning before his assassination. Among these coins is the golden stater celebrating his triumph in the chariot race in the Olympics in 356 BC - an early example of the use of coins as propaganda. These staters are widely circulated among the Celts of central and northern Europe whose earliest coins are copies of Philip's.
According to Demosthenes 10% is the normal rate of interest for run-of-the-mill business. For risky business such as lending for shipping rates of between 20% and 30% are normal.
During the conquest of Asia Minor the cost of maintaining Alexander's army reaches about 20 talents or half a ton of silver a day but later enormous quantities of Persian bullion are captured. The coining of the previously stagnant Persian gold stocks and payments to Alexander's soldiers, many of whom settle in new towns founded by him, give an enormous stimulus to trade throughout his empire. Alexander also simplifies the exchange rate between silver and gold by fixing it at 10 units of silver equals one of gold.
For long before Egypt came under Greek control grain had been used as a form of money in addition to precious metals, and state granaries functioned as banks. The Ptolemies transform the local warehouse deposit system into a fully integrated giro system with a central bank in Alexandria. Payments are made by transfer from one account to another without money passing.
These cumbersome bronze bars are later superseded by coins which are much more convenient.
Despite the example of the Greek colonies on the southern Italian mainland and Sicily, and of Carthage, the Romans are relatively late in adopting coinage.
Because of the enormous demand for coins to pay troops the Roman rulers debase their coinage in purity and weight, causing inflation.
Delos, a barren Greek island, capitalises on its magnificent harbour and famous temple of Apollo to become a financial centre. Its rise is aided by the defeat of Carthage, one of its main rivals, by the Romans. Transactions are carried out by giro or credit transfer.
This consists of pieces of white deerskin, about one foot square, with a value of 40,000 cash. (The cash was the name of a base metal coin).
In his account of his two raids, Caesar notes scornfully that the Britons still used sword blades as currency. However a number of the Celtic tribes had begun to mint their own coins of gold, silver, bronze and potin (alloys of copper and tin).
Mis en ligne le 01/01/2008 par Pierre Ratcliffe. Contact: (pratclif@free.fr) sites web http://paysdefayence.blogspot.com et http://pierreratcliffe.blogspot.com