The History of Money
Korea observes Trade Day on December 5th every year.
On this day, businesspeople are encouraged to trade their products with other businesses around the world.
For global trade to work successfully, we of course need money.
Several thousand years ago, nobody used money because no printing machines existed.
Creating paper money by hand would have taken much too long.
Instead, people traded things.
A farmer, for example, might have given out milk in exchange for new clothing.
However, this trading system, called bartering, also required a lot of time.
Then, about 3,000 years ago, the Chinese began using seashells as currency.
Later, around 1,100 B.C.E, metal coins first appeared in China.
But carrying these coins was a burden, especially for the rich.
So, around the 7th century, the Chinese introduced paper money, called “Jiaozi” to represent the metal coins.
Today, there are at least 180 national money systems recognized by the UN.
