What is Money?
Some of us have lots of it, others very little. For some people, it's a
cure for all problems, but for others, it's a curse. Money. Most of us
couldn't live without it, but do you know what it is? From loose change,
to banknotes, cheque books to online banking.
What is money? "Money is whatever two people can agree on as a way of
exchanging goods," explains Dr. Katie Eagleton, curator at the Money Gallery
in the British Museum, London. "In some parts of the world, salt was used
like a currency because it was valuable."
So money is something with value used as a medium of exchange. And that
value has to be agreed on by everyone who uses it.
"It's also a store of value and a unit of account," says Andrew Bailey11,
chief cashier at the Bank of England.
How long have we used money?
The use of cattle as currency is thought to be the oldest form of money -
dating back eight thousand years. Three thousand years ago, the Chinese used
cowry shells. And from 1,000BC they made cowry shell imitations out of base
metals.
