MONEY is not just a piece of paper or the numbers shown in your account. It is an an asset which is backed by some precious or worthy thing. It has never been loyal to anyone. But from beggar to billionaire, everyone wants to have it. It’s not just a piece of paper; it’s an addiction. It transformed hunters, blacksmiths, merchants, and kings. It was money that forced these people who lived in the forests to live in the tallest buildings.
But from where did the power of money come? How was it made? When? Why? And what is money?
Money in a piece of paper has no value of its own; it just tells us the value of other things. We work day and night for it, but in the end, we give this to others so that we can buy what they have, and then that person gives the same money to someone else so that they can buy what they like. And so, money goes around the world from here to there.
Do you know how much money is in the world right now? What is visible to you in Cash & Bank deposits are 50 to 80 trillion dollars, and what is not visible to you is 1300 trillion dollars, or 1.3 quadrillion dollars and more. Where did all this money come from? Who made it? So come with me on such a miraculous journey in which we will know the story of money you have never heard before. We’re going to learn all the things you never thought about before today. From battering to stones & gold, silver coins to such money that is invisible, how did it become a language that everyone in the world understands? How did this lifeless thing make us its slaves?
The Barter System: Trading Without Money
So let’s go back 8,000 years ago when there was no sign of money. This was the time when humans lived in small tribes, and they all had only one goal: to hunt and survive. But prey is something that cannot be found easily every day. But hunger strikes every day. It was the hunger that forced one tribe to take and give something from another tribe. If you give us fresh meat, we will give you our weapons; both have benefits from this transaction. Because if you take something forcibly, you will get it once, but not the second time. And so, the barter system was born: exchanging [giving or taking things]. The barter system is said to have originated somewhere in Mesopotamian tribes. Mesopotamia is the name of a region in Southwest Asia where Iraq is today. This is where the Mesopotamian tribes used to live. The barter system changed us. People who used to fight each other now started to live together.
Barter to Books: How Trade Created Accounting
Everyone started trading with each other, and thousands of years later, when the population increased and they started farming, the shortcomings of the barter system began to come to light. It was hard to remember when trading with so many people from whom to take what and whom to give. To remember this, they started writing on small pieces of clay, which started accounting. They began accounting for things, but the problems of the barter system were not going away. The biggest problem was that both parties had to agree to trade. You want-what I have, but I don’t want-what you have. Because of this, trade could not be done, and it became very difficult to trade through the barter system.
From Barter to Value: Evolution of Commodity-Based Currency
And now they wanted something that everyone wanted. Thus, money began. It’s not the money you’re thinking of; it was commodity money. They monetized everything that was rare, which they also used, and everyone was willing to trade by this: like cows, buffaloes, goats, axes, knives, thieves, arrows, swords, and even humans. Yes, it was common to use slaves as money at that time. On Yap Island, people used to use big donut-like stones that weighed up to five tons. They are called Rai Stones. Once placed, they stayed there forever; they just remembered who they belonged to Commodity money made our lives easier.But it had a big problem: it was very difficult to know what the value of what I had was. Each commodity seemed to have its own distinct value. Now they wanted something that had a certain value and took a long time to expire. Things like animals and alcohol degrade over time.
Metal Money Revolution: The Era of Coins Begins
2600 years ago, Metallic money started in Ancient Greece. Gold and silver were mixed to make coins with lions and bulls on them. People used to get only two coins after working day and night; they did not even get food from them.
Fun Fact: The word “salary” comes from “salt” because Roman soldiers get paid in salts many times.
This was the first coin of the world: the Lydian Stater[Lydia is modern-day Turkey] . It is said that the coins were first introduced by the Chinese in 1000 BC, who used to make brass and copper coins, but it was not necessary to use them like the Lydian Stater. After the Lydian Stater, everybody started making coins. The king of each empire started minting coins of his own name. Everyone started using coins now because it became very easy to trade through them. But if you look at it in a certain way, metal money was also considered a commodity. If the coins are less, it’s not an issue, but if they are more, then their biggest problem starts to appear.
Paper Money: From Ancient China to Global Currency
It was a time when overseas trading was booming, and all this trade was done in coins. But the more coins, the more they weighed, and due to their heavy weight, they also took up more space in the ship. It took a long time to transport them, due to which the risk of coins being stolen increased a lot. It’s easy to count coins, but who will count this many coins? Now we need something lightweight that we can easily shift, store, and count. There is a very famous saying: “Everybody likes progress, but nobody likes change.” Everyone wants to progress, but not everyone wants change. And that’s what happened with paper money. The Emperor of Mongol China and grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, made the world’s first paper money from the bark of a tree. And like I said, people don’t like change. And why should they like it? Kublai Khan used to give these people only a piece of paper in exchange for their precious sparkling diamonds. But those who refused to take the paper money of Kublai Khan would have been put to death. Actually, it was paper money, but it is called I.O.U. (I OWE YOU) that I owe you a debt. You take this paper and come to take your gold coins whenever you want. People thought, why change it into gold and silver? Just trade this paper. And like the coins, this idea began to spread outside of China.
From Paper to Pixels: Rise of Banking
But unknowingly, such a power was about to begin, which was impossible to stop. And that power was the banks. Because of paper money, international trading increased to this extreme. I.O.U.s, meaning paper money of that time, became available to everyone. And here are some people who were hungry for money. They took their gold coins from the people and gave them I.O.U.s. But the I.O.U. was something they could print as much as they wanted. People also started taking that paper money because they were afraid of gold coins being stolen. And you know how a bank makes money: by lending. Now that mini bank started lending I.O.U.s to those people, due to which paper money became abundant in the city. And because of the abundance of paper money, something emerged which is called inflation. What was worth one I.O.U. increased to ten I.O.U.s. That bank did not have as many gold coins as there was paper money in the entire city. When people found out that the price of their I.O.U. was going down, they ran to that bank to get their gold coins, but that bank had nothing to give to all of them. People lost their trust in banks, and for many years, no one even thought about the bank. Now they started hiding their gold coins in their houses, due to which the circulation of money was greatly reduced, and many problems started to appear.
The Golden Backup: Gold as a Reserve Currency
In 1816, Britain [UK] brought a new law that we would print money as much gold as we have, which would not cause inflation, and debt would also be given in a limit. This is called bringing paper money to the gold standard. And soon all the countries began to limit their paper money to the gold standard. Eventually, the USA adopted the gold standard in 1900. It cannot be denied that when money was made, it brought with it a thing that is impossible to avoid: the greed for money. It doesn’t matter how much you have; you always want more. If you have 100 crores, why wouldn’t you want to have 1000 crores? It doesn’t matter how much money we have; we always want a little more, just a little more. And in this little cycle, paper money was going to make such a turn after which it was impossible to stop. If the country has more money, inflation occurs, and prices rise, which is harmful. But if the country has less money, there is deflation, which is even more harmful. In the 1930s, the USA was in the Great Depression because of deflation (low prices). Because things were so cheap, companies were not making enough money to pay their employees, which caused the economy to crash. People had neither money nor jobs, and for the solution, in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the relationship between the dollar and gold. Now all that was there was paper money, and now the banks had their power back. They knew how to take advantage of it, and that power was printing money. And you know what happens with more money? Inflation. To control it, America created the Central Bank (FED), which regulates that there is neither more nor less money in the country. But the dollars you could convert into gold were an I.O.U. for you, and now it became only a piece of paper. It is what it is; it’s just a worthless piece of paper. It has no value, and now it became fiat money. You think that only the dollar is fiat money? No! All the currencies of the world, whether Indian or American, are fiat money. All these pieces of paper are not backed by gold or any physical commodity. If this piece of paper is nothing, how do we buy everything from it? Because we just believe that we will get something in return. What lies in your banks, wallets, and lockers is only trust, not money, the value of which is decreasing day by day due to inflation. Paper money has eased many of our difficulties; it could be easily counted, handled, and carried anywhere.
Money Goes Online: Rise of Digital Age
But something that was much needed in this fast-changing world was speed. Paper money can be easily carried, but it also takes time. Now we need something by which we can transfer money to another in a few nanoseconds. E-MONEY was launched in the 1980s: digital money. Millions and billions of transactions in just a few seconds. No fear of being stolen, no need to count. And so, the banks don’t even have to print anything anymore; just type some numbers on the computer, and the money is made. The truth is that we cannot live without digital money in the world of speed. We can buy everything from the comfort of our homes with just one click. Digital money travels from one corner of the world to another in less than a second.
The Age of Crypto: From digital to Decentralized
Digital money also had a huge problem; hacking. It is difficult to hack, but not impossible. And far from this thing, such money was launched in 2009, which is impossible to hack. I am talking about cryptocurrency. You must have heard the name Bitcoin. Credit cards, checks, online payments—all this is done according to the rules and regulations of the government. But Bitcoin is money that has nothing to do with the government, nor is it connected to any fiat money (paper money). What is there Is just some numbers like 21,000,000. We know only the name of the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto (Pseudonym). Due to the non-applicability of any government rule on it, it can be easily used in illegal transactions. More illegal transactions mean more crime, and the more crime, the more damage to a country. But the Peoples are working to make it better and better. Whatever Bitcoin is, its blockchain technology is thousands of years ahead of the technology of credit cards and online payments. It is impossible to hack; it may take a billion years or more to hack just one Bitcoin. You know when Bitcoin launched in 2009, one Bitcoin was worth zero dollars likely in cents. Its price was only 1 dollar in 2011, and the price of one Bitcoin today in 2025 is more than 100,000 dollars. Now whether this is a scam or a real get-rich scheme only time will tell.
The Crypto Backup: Bitcoin as a Reserved Currency
As the world is shifting towards digital finance, Bitcoin is no longer just a rat poison. It’s evolving into something far bigger. With Rising Inflation, devaluing fiat currencies, and unstable global politics, governments are in search for reliable asset. As the invisible Asset, Bitcoin offers transparency, store of value (just 21 million ever), and in no one’s control. It’s being called the “Digital Gold” for a reason. Bitcoin as Reserved currency-started with El Salvador, which made Bitcoin legal tender. Since then some U.S. senators and big names in finance like institutional investors and hedge funds have started backing the idea of holding Bitcoin as strategic asset. Even companies like BlackRock are investing in Crypto.
Conclusion:
“Gear up mentally. Rule financially.” Look back at this World, How much this world has progressed in such a short time! In just a few thousand years, we went from gold and silver coins to invisible money. Something that increases in its value over time is real money. The value of paper money decreases every year due to inflation, and truth be told, this cycle is never going to stop. But you can avoid this by learning. We made this money for our own benefit, but maybe we are losing it. You work at some place from dawn to dusk. What do you get at the end of each month? Just some pieces of paper or some numbers that appear on the screen. You have to understand that the world runs on trust, not money. What we see is nothing but an illusion. Now the question arises: what should we do? Money is a part of our life. First of all, you have to recognize real money. There is only one, investing in real money, which has value in itself. You know that no matter how much money there is in this world, if all of it is shared equally among every person, that money will go back to where it came from. But why? Because all the rich people in this world understand money and know it. They don’t work for money; money works for them. And the day you understand it, your life will change forever. Before doing all this, you need to educate yourself financially. The time you waste cursing the government and inflation, spend the same time on your financial education. Because nothing is going to change; you have to change yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn.