The Evolutionary History of Money.
                     THE 
EVOLUTIONARY 
HISTORY OF 
MONEY
Early Money
• Long before money was invented, people were quite happy making, doing, and 
growing things for one another. Keeping tabs or tallies of these exchanges helped 
with the key requirement, which was to record who had been paid and who were still 
owed.
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Metal Money
• Once people start using money to facilitate trade, whether in the form of shells, 
barley, feathers, or whale's teeth, some useful characteristics of money become 
apparent. Barley, for example, is heavy to carry, so not portable or even durable.
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Paper Money
• As global trade grew, the idea of paper money caught on. But traders and lenders 
were concerned that it was a bit too easy just to print money, so they tried to link the 
value of money to the value of gold, which had the benefit of creating a standard for 
exchange between different currencies.
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Controlling Money
• In the 20th century, some economists argue that the amount of money in circulation 
directly affects economic performance, and it is important for governments to try to 
control it. But this is not easy, especially when it's private lenders that create most of 
it.
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Money and Inflation
• In the 16th century, Spain brought home massive additional supplies of precious 
metals from the colonies. But what seemed like a dream come true and should surely 
have boosted trade turned sour when traders simply put up the price of their goods to 
match this new purchasing power
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International Money
• In the 18th century, the British forced their colonies in America to pay their taxes in 
pounds, and they made it illegal for the British colonies to print their own money. This 
meant that the colonies were forced to trade with the motherland to access the 
currency.
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Money and Building Banks
• By the 19th century, banking had become a thoroughly respectable business. Making 
a profit by basic money lending, banks paid a lower rate of interest for the money they 
took in than they charged all the money they loaned out. 
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Money and Saving the Banks
• To understand how governments tried to prevent global financial meltdown after 
2008, economists distinguish between two kinds of money, money created by banks 
inside the banking system and money created by governments outside the banking 
system.
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The Power of Money
• A new form of money has become important will be when governments and banks try 
to control it. And if governments and banks continue to have the power to control 
money, those who use it will always wonder to what purpose will they put that power.
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