History of Money – Timeline of Monetary Evolution

The history of money has evolved from gift and barter economies into digital currencies over the past 10.000 years. Understanding history is one of the most important things to do to be successful in any aspect of life as history has shown a tendency to repeat itself, so let’s dive into it!

The First Paper Money

Around 700 A.D

During the **** Dynasty in China there were already some forms of paper money like bills and credit notes.
Paper money arrived in Europe thanks to the travels of Marco Polo around the year 1200 AD. It was not until 1661 that the first Banknote was issued in Sweden.

The Timeline we’ll use for the History of money

BC: Before Christ

AD: Anno Domini
It can get a little confusing because everyone is writing different timelines, using different codes and letters, so we want to keep a simple standard for our article.

Bitcoin and the Crypto Revolution

Around 2009

In 2009, a mysterious developer known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” created Bitcoin
Bitcoin grew to become the world’s largest digital currency
Unlike fiat money backed by governments, Bitcoin is decentralized and power lies on the whole network not one person that can make decisions

Paypal and Digital Money

Around 1990

Being able to transfer money from computer to computer within seconds was really one of the greatest leaps in terms of the history of money that we’ve ever seen
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, was the owner of x.com, the precursor to Paypal

Barter and Gift Economies – 9000 BC

The act of exchanging goods or services without using money

Bartering involves a lot of work
Finding someone who is interested in what you have, ensuring that you can both agree on a proper value for your transaction
It was said to be practiced with enemies

Chinese Miniature Replicas

Around 1100 BC

In China, miniature bronze replicas of goods were being used as currency
This could have been very impractical as any possible miniature replica objects that you could make would be uncomfortable to carry and could be dangerous
Miniature replicas did exist in some places, like Lydia

What is money?

Widely

It has to be accepted by many people, otherwise it can’t work
Accepted
Exchange
Now that everyone accepts it, we also agree that it has some sort of value and we can exchange it for certain things

Conclusion

Money has come a long way

Humans are always looking for ways to improve systems
Every time a new technology comes by, another one can go down
It’s up to us to sit down and try to think of what could be the next future steps for humanity so we can use this information to make decisions

Why is money valuable?

Money is valuable because we all have FAITH in it

A good government = good monetary policy and valuable currency
Bad Government = bad monetary policy & currency losing value
Communist dictatorship = no policy, just theft and the country’s currency becomes worthless

The Invention of the U.S Dollar

Invented April 2, 1792

End of the Gold Standard

On March 3rd 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed all the banks in the U.S.A.

At those times, there was a fixed exchange rate between US dollars and Gold
When Roosevelt closed banks, he temporarily banned the ability to redeem dollars for gold and prohibited gold exporting
Thanks to these bold manoeuvres, the gold reserves of Fort Knox were built and the United States held the largest gold supply in the world

The First Official Currency

Lydian Lion Around 600 BC

King Alyattes minted what would become the first official currency ever recorded.
Each coin was made from electrum alloy, a mixture of silver and gold, and depicted a lion with two possible faces: Concerned as if they had problems, and Cold as though they were a cartoon.

Bronze Age

Commodity Money – 3000 BC

Objects that are valuable by themselves and when used as money are valuable both as objects and as money
Money needs to be a widely accepted medium of exchange to function
Babylonian civilization already implemented some primitive economic systems including contracts, laws, rules of private property and debt