unit 24货币的历史The History of Money

The History of Money货币的历史Money is anything that is commonly accepted by a group of people for the exchange of goods, services, or resources. Every country has its own system of coins and paper money.钱通常是人们用来交换商品、服务或者是资源的东西。

每个国家都有自己的硬币和纸币系统。

Bartering and Commodity MoneyIn the beginning, people bartered. Barter is the exchange of a good or service for another good or service, a bag of rice for a bag of beans. However, what if you couldn't agree what something was worth in exchange or you didn't want what the other person had. To solve that problem humans developed what is called commodity money.A commodity is a basic item used by almost everyone. In the past, salt, tea, tobacco, cattle and seeds were commodities and therefore were once used as money. However, using commodities as money had other problems. Carrying bags of salt and other commodities was hard, and commodities were difficult to store or were perishable.以物易物与商品货币起初，人们以货易货。

以物易物是用一种商品或服务换取另外一种商品或服务，比如用一袋大米换取一袋大豆。

但是，如果你认为那东西不值得或者是你不需要另外一个人的东西，那又怎么办呢。

为了解决这个问题，人们便开发出了被称为商品货币的东西。

这种商品几乎是大家都使用的东西。

在过去，盐，茶叶，烟草，牲畜和种子都充担过用来交换的商品，曾经起着钱的作用。

然而，使用商品作为货币又有其他问题。

背着装着食盐等商品袋子去交换是很不方便的，用来交换的商品又很难储存而且容易腐烂。

Coins and Paper MoneyMetals objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C. By 700 BC, the Lydians became the first in the Western world to make coins. Countries were soon minting their own series of coins with specific values. Metal was used because it was readily available, easy to work with and could be recycled. Since coins were given a certain value, it became easier to compare the cost of items people wanted.Some of the earliest known paper money dates back to China, where the issue of paper money became common from about AD 960 onwards.硬币与纸币金属物体被当做钱用是在大约公元前5000年。

到了公元前700年，吕底亚人成为西方最早铸造硬币的人。

西方各国很快就铸造了一系列自己的具有特定价值的硬币。

人们使用金属是因为金属有其自身的优势，容易加工，能够循环使用。

由于硬币被赋予了一定的价值，它更容易成为人们进行价值比较的商品。

最早使用纸币的国家可以追溯到中国，中国普遍发行纸币大约是在公元960年。

Representative MoneyWith the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity money evolved into representative money. This meant that what money itself was made of no longer had to be very valuable.Representative money was backed by a government or bank's promise to exchange it for a certain amount of silver or gold. For example, the old British Pound bill or Pound Sterling was once guaranteed to be redeemable for a pound of sterling silver.For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of currencies were based on representative money through the use of the gold standard.代用性货币（纸币）随着纸币和非贵金属铸币的传入，商品货币逐渐演变为代用性货币。

这意味着钱本身由什么东西铸造不再变得十分重要。

代用性货币是因为得到政府支持或银行承诺而流通的，用代用性货币可以换取一定数额的银子或金子。

例如，旧英镑钞票或英镑一度保证可以兑换同等英镑价值的白银。

到了十九世纪和二十世纪，大多数货币都通过金本位制来换取代用性货币。

Fiat MoneyRepresentative money has now been replaced by fiat money. Fiat is the Latin word for "let it be done". Money is now given value by a government fiat or decree, in other words enforceable legal tender laws were made. By law the refusal of "legal tender" money in favor of some other form of payment is illegal.不兑现纸币代用性纸币现已经被不兑现纸币取代。

Fiat是拉丁词，意为“让它来完成”。

现在钱的价值是由政府的法令或政令来确定的，换句话说是政府制定了强制执行法定货币的法律。

根据法律规定，拒绝使用“法定货币”而采用其他方式付款是违法的。

（不兑现纸币是由政府发行的不能兑换成黄金或白银的纸币，其购买力源于政府的权威和信誉。

）$$$The origin of the "$" money sign is not certain. Many historians trace the $ money sign to either the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The study of old manuscripts shows that the "S," gradually came to be written over the "P," looking very muchlike the "$" mark. $ $ $带有“$”符号的钱，其起源并不是必然的。

许多历史学家研究带$符号的钱的来历的时候，发现其来源不是来自墨西哥的‘P’s’就是西班牙的‘P’s’，用来代表比索，或皮阿斯特，或八件。

旧手稿的研究表明，“S”渐渐被写成“P”，看起来非常像“$”标志。

U.S. Money TriviaOn March 10, 1862 the first United States paper money was issued. The denominations were $5, $10, and $20. They became legal tender（法定货币）by Act of March 17, 1862. The inclusion of "In God We Trust" on all currency was required by law in 1955. The national motto first appeared on paper money in 1957 on $1 Silver Certificates, and on all Federal Reserve Notes beginning with Series 1963.美国货币琐事3月10日1862年第一次发行美国纸币。

面额为5元，10元，和20元。

根据1862年3月17日通过的法案，它们成为法定货币。

将所有货币印上“我们相信上帝”是在1955年。

国家座右铭第一次出现在纸币上是在1957年发行的一美元银证书上，并从1963年开始在所有美联储的钞票都印有国家座右铭。

Electronic BankingERMA began as a project for the Bank of America in an effort to computerize the banking industry. MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) was part of ERMA. MICR allowed computers to read special numbers at the bottom of checks that allowed computerized tracking and accounting of check transactions.电子银行ERMA开始是美国银行会计业务自动化的一个项目，其目的是努力实现银行业的计算机化。