◆”What exactly is money?”
By the way, have you ever thought about what exactly is money, the source of asset building? Today, we would like to think about money together.
There are several ways to call money, such as money, currency, coin, and money, but they are not strictly distinguished.
From this, I think it is safe to assume that the general common name is “money,” with “banknotes” and “coins” being material money, and “money” being legal tender and the payment system in general.
The reason why the issuers of banknotes and coins are different is that if the government were allowed to issue banknotes, there would be no limit to the number of banknotes it could issue (even now, it is issuing an almost unlimited number of coins, but it will get worse).
The issuance of coins also has the meaning of stockpiling resources.
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◆There has never been a barter economy in human history?
Next, regarding the origin of money, the common theory says that it started from barter and changed from “goods money (shells, cloth, livestock, stones, etc.) to metal money (gold, silver, iron, etc.) to paper money.
It has long been a common theory that money began as barter. In the old days, eminent members such as the philosopher Aristotle, the English political scientist John Locke, and the economist Adam Smith stated the same thing in their books.
Recently, however, some researchers have claimed that they have not found any evidence that clearly shows the transition from a barter economy to a money economy. This is because it is difficult to establish a barter economy on a social scale.
In the case of barter, the first step is to find someone who has what you want.
Even if you find someone who has what you want, you have to negotiate the price each time. Especially if what you own is perishable, if you do not exchange it quickly, it will go bad.
It is unlikely that such inconvenience was done on a large scale.
In fact, it can be inferred that since the beginning of time, people have been using some kind of goods money for exchange.