I did a post about the concept of money, a topic we all too know well about and at the same time little about on the POB platform, but coming here, i thought it necessary to share it and broaden our horizons on what money is, it's origin and myths.
This write up is filled with historical extracts and write ups from different authors and also laced with my personal beliefs about money, i hope you enjoy the read and kindly drop your comments below.
Taking a leaf from @anaclark post of last week talking about Money you either control it or it control's you has motivated me to write about the concept of money we all too know well about.
you can see @anaclark post here for you to understand why i decided to write about this topic. https://www.proofofbrain.io/hive-150329/@anaclark/money-you-either-control-it-or-it-controls-you-blogging-challenge-part-1#
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Money is a concept we are all familiar with in this present day. i'm sure if i asked my five year old nephew if she knows what money is, she'd be able to tell me it's used for buying chocolates and all sorts. kids are not exempted in the understanding of what money is, talk more of adults.
In broad terms, money is defined as a means of exchange. However, it goes much more deeper than that.
According to Investopedia, "Money is an economic unit that functions as a generally recognized medium of exchange for transactional purposes in an economy. Money provides the service of reducing transaction cost, namely the double coincidence of wants. Money originates in the form of a commodity, having a physical property to be adopted by market participants as a medium of exchange. Money can be: market-determined, officially issued legal tender or fiat moneys, money substitutes and fiduciary media, and electronic cryptocurrencies".
However, the term money wasn't originally an english word. The conceptual term money was derived from the Latin word "moneta" with the meaning "coin" via French monnaie.
The Latin word was believed to originate from a temple of Juno, on Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills. In the ancient world, Juno was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located.[10] The name "Juno" may have derived from the Etruscan goddess Uni (which means "the one", "unique", "unit", "union", "united") and "Moneta" either from the Latin word "monere" (remind, warn, or instruct) or the Greek word "moneres" (alone, unique).
Money didn't start as the bank notes or coins or crypto currencies we have today. Right from the inception of the world and fall of man from the biblical garden of eden, the concept of money has been in existence has there have been a mean of exchange that serves as a legal tender. i could remember vividly that Joseph was sold for silver coin, Jesus was betrayed for coins as well. this is to show that thousands of years ago the existence of money has been prevalent.
The existence of money can be traced side by side to the existence of trade. There can't be trade without a means of exchange. this is to say that even when the world operates on trade by barter, there was a means to exchange value. This submission is further buttressed below in the words of Adam Smith.
According to the theory propounded by Adam Smith in His book “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) by Adam Smith, money emerged with increasing productivity and the division of labour, as individuals found themselves without many of the necessities they required but at the same time an excess of their own products. Without a common means of payment individuals had to resort to barter in order to trade, which was problematic as both sides of the deal had to have something the other person wanted (the “double coincidence of wants”).
The Book, A History of Money by Glyn Davies, includes but a minute proportion of the enormous variety of primitive moneys, and none of the modern forms.
Amber, beads, cowries, drums, eggs, feathers, gongs, hoes, ivory, jade, kettles, leather, mats, nails, oxen, pigs, quartz, rice, salt, thimbles, umiacs, vodka, wampum, yarns, and zappozats (decorated axes).
It is almost impossible to define money in terms of its physical form or properties since these are so diverse. Therefore any definition must be based on its functions
According to the Commodity theory certain types of commodities were introduced as means of exchange for goods and services to avoid this inconvenience. Particularly obvious as candidates for such a means were gold, silver and other kinds of metals, as the majority of people found them valuable and as they easily divisible into smaller units, most would accept them in exchange for their own goods or services.
In 2012, i came across a write up by Mankiw in 2012 where the term fiat currency was first filtered into my understanding. he noted that Fiat money is the norm in most economies
today, but most societies in the past have used
a commodity with some intrinsic value for
money. This type of money is called commodity money. The most widespread example is
gold. When people use gold as money (or use
paper money that is redeemable for gold), the
economy is said to be on a gold standard.
Gold is a form of commodity money because
it can be used for various purposes—jewelry,
dental fillings, and so on—as well as for transactions. The gold standard was common throughout the world during the late nineteenth century. Now Fiat currency is a norm, crypto currency is a norm as well.
As the world transcends from the physical to the virtual, our idea of money has also transcended to the level where we can exchange money for a commodity without necessarily having to exchange for it with a physical currency. All you need is just a credit card, debit card, online transfer, crypto currency and all sorts. this has made the world easier right? But i beg to differ.
In the bid to make the world easier, safer and transactions faster, our love for money has tripled. we now gauge people's worth and value by the amount of money they have and are able expend. friends are not left out, religious institutions are not left out. Humanity has lost its cause because we have placed a lot of premium on wealth valued by money and not morals nor civics.
We are familiar with the Biblical Phrase, The Love of money is the root of all evil. Further to this we have a saying my mother tongue that when translated simply means, what money cannot do doesn't exist. in as much as this whole charade and infactuation with money has made us lose our humanity to the extent we chase this money at all cost without recourse to whosever horse is goured.
Countless of times, i have heard young folks as myself say that oh money buy happiness, i'd rather cry in a Ferrari than be walking happily. this makes me think, is your happiness truly worth it to be exchange for this infinitesimal things called liabilities that you can lose at a whim. my little sojourn through life has taught me so many things and one worthy of note is that money in whatever form, shape or sizes is not capable of giving one true happiness. It can give you joy or even an euphoria for a moment but that happiness is not embedded in having money. some say money answers all thing, and that's why we are stuck in this rat race and chase for wealth, even already made billionaires are not left out in the constant chase for this money which started as a means of legal tender instead of the usual trade by barter.
But i beg to differ a little, in my little experience in life, i have come to realize that money do not give you that desired happiness. if it does then billionaires would be the most happiest on earth but the reverse is the case. we see billionaires multi millionaires die of depression, heart heart as a result of continuous thinking leading to high blood pressure while on the contrary you see an extremely poor man with genuine happiness on daily basis and being grateful to God for the gift of life.
In my own opinion the whole rat race for money is not worth it honestly. some lose their humanity because they want to make this money while others lose their lives in the process which makes no sense to me at all. can we all just hit the reset button and start afresh?
We need to place premiums on changing our mindsets that money isn't the source of our happiness. true happiness comes from within and surrounding yourself with good people with genuine intentions.
I'd wrap up this little expose on money with the quote by Jonathan Swift "A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart."
REFRENCES:
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/origins.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money#:~:text=The%20word%20money%20derives%20from,one%20of%20Rome's%20seven%20hills.&text=The%20temple%20of%20Juno%20Moneta,of%20Ancient%20Rome%20was%20located.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/money.asp
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