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Transformation of Cash

 

            The move from a barter economy to the use of cash in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia was a gradual change. Bartering is to trade goods or services without the exchange of money and was how people did business. The transformation from bartering might have started when bartering was very active. This was when cities were growing and many people were in certain areas where there were many different goods for people to trade. With all this chaos an organized system or aid would seem very helpful, and in these early metropolises is were the worlds oldest accounting records were found. 8,162 tiny clay tokens were found in the village houses and were possibly used as counters or notes to keep track of transactions.
             Even though clay tokens are far from minted coins it is still a step towards cash and a step away from bartering. Heather Pringle, the author of " The Cradle of Cash, has a strong argument that the use of cash came about before the first coins were minted. In early Mesopotamia silver became a good standard way to help state value. Since value of supplies stayed the same it was a good standard and way to tell the value of other things. These concepts and ways of trading are strong evidence for Pringles argument and the progression away from bartering. As time went by and there were more cities the old ways of barter began to disappear even more. There were more local standards of value in these places and silver was often that standard. Commerce started to became more and more frequent and the process of it became smoother. As this happened people became more selective of money and eventually coins came into play. The biggest difference about coins was that they had a visible guarantee of authenticity, which was a huge step for money and what it has become today. .
             From the clay tokens found in ancient village houses to the Greek coins that were a big part of European Civilization, money has been an integrate part of the world.


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