Money

Money - The use of currency to pay for goods or services.

Early human cultures relied primarily on bartering to exchange goods and services. It was not until about 12000 BCE that the first form of money emerged in ancient Turkey, when people begin using obsidian as a medium of exchange. Although obsidian could be utilized to create stone tools, those trading it did not necessarily use it for tool creation, instead employing it as an object of value. Some time between about 9000 and 6000 BCE, people begin using livestock, such as cattle and sheep, as a form of currency. By about the sixth century BCE, people in western Turkey had created the first form of currency after they melted gold into small coins imprinted with a stamped image. The first true paper money appeared in China in the eleventh century, consisting of bank notes that provided a written promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation-thereby advancing the concept of currency beyond that of a tangible object of value. Although most currencies throughout history have been tied to the value of a commodity, such as gold or silver, modern systems use fiat money: money that is valuable solely because it is used as such.

Without money, humans would have to barter whenever they wanted to engage in any kind of commerce. Bartering, though widely still in use, can be incredibly unwieldy. If a buyer does not have what a seller needs, or wise versa, no commerce can take place. With money, however, humans introduced a universally agreed-upon object that all parties recognized as valuable. This had a profound impact on human society, creating new links between people through trade, which in turn enabled people to break away from their traditional kin groups. Market economies and strong currencies became the key to thriving cities, underpinning the intellectual, cultural and technological advances that evolved from these centers of commerce.