<p>Money developed from commodities or debt indicators (such as debt measuring sticks). Some sort of primitive money was used in pre-history so exact origin is disputed  (d’Errico et al. 2012, Ferguson 2008, Glyn 2002).</p>
<p>Hence, what has happened is that people first were exchanging goods for other goods (what in economics we would call barter or what some social anthropologists call gift giving if it’s within some community connected by social relations). At some point either one of the two things happened:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>One of the commodities was widely desired (grain, sheep, stones, metals) and people realized they can avoid the problem of double coincidence of wants by just generally accepting that commodity. At a point of time that most people in the community accepted that commodity in payment, the commodity became money. For example, if that commodity was silver everyone with silver had some money from that point on.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If money developed from debt then at some point people started to trade tally sticks/bones that represented some amount of something owed (like grain). In that case anyone who had some tally stick/bone would have money once it would be generally accepted.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In both case the money come from something already preexisting in community. Historically people didn’t just one day invented money, rather some goods gradually became money over time. Hence at the point people developed money, most people already had some money by accumulating some commodities in the past through various ways.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T19:38:41.097Z
what do you even mean by that?
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-21T07:50:18.260Z
@user253751 Seems like that would have happened with the ascent of states, which could mint money. I have read (but hardly know anything about this) is that a reason for the spread (not the development) of money was that the state demanded taxes in its currency, forcing you to acquire some of it by participating in the market. This also made the state budget somewhat more flexible. When the state creates its currency, there is no debt covering (though there is an expected future obligation).
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T16:48:29.147Z
2022-09-20T16:54:40.927Z
2022-09-20T16:54:40.927Z
1muflon1
<p>Money represents property, that is assets. If it represents nothing then it's worth nothing. This is why we were on the gold standard for a long time until at some point the economy felt stable enough to let it float somewhat free. But of course everytime investors feel scared there's a rush to gold.</p>
<p>So it's property that defined wealth first. Maybe furs, clothing, a good battle-axe. Maybe a woman - we are talking prehistory here - or a hut of a kind. Maybe a boat - a canoe. Amd of course food. That was wealth. As bartering developed the idea of a common but rare token, that was easily transported but signified a storage of wealth developed. I've heard of cowrie shells being used in places - perhaps the Americas or the Pacific. I don't recall.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T17:04:31.660Z
2022-09-20T17:04:31.660Z
Mozibur Ullah
<p>when goods exchanging，goods can not shift at same time，it must be one thing give one man in advance，and if record it， we will have one un-standard currency. secend, third one comfirm the &quot;currency&quot; then it will change to standarded.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-03T23:24:28.880Z
we could use paper to record, we could use gold or shell to embody record, or even just use brian or comunity consensus to record.
李俊宇
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-03T23:17:38.847Z
2022-10-03T23:17:38.847Z
李俊宇
<p>If certain people were the first money owners, then how did they get their money?</p>
<p>How could someone have paid the first money owners with money, if nobody before the first money owners had any money?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T19:40:35.293Z
Money is declared legal tender. It's there because the government decided to issue it. It's printed /minted and circulated by the government. It's not much different from the game called monopoly. You use the monopoly money because the game designers made it available.
Alex
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T22:33:27.953Z
I think the monopoly game does not concern itself with this question. Entities "somehow" have money and they just give it to players. Declaring money to be legal tender is one thing but getting it in people's hands is another matter. I don't think the government just gave everyone some amount of money to start with.
rapt
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-21T04:18:14.293Z
that's how it usually works though. When the Euro war introduced it wasn't different either. There was something else before (local currencies) but these were made useless and all you could do is change your old money (further back, whatever means of payment) into new money, of you had any.
Alex
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-21T16:06:11.740Z
The point of the question is to ask how the transition from "no currency" to "some currency" happened. Not from "one currency" to "another currency" which is easy to imagine.
rapt
<currency><money><economic-history>
How did the first money owners get their money?
rapt
# How did the first money owners get their money?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-20)

If certain people were the first money owners, then how did they get their money?

How could someone have paid the first money owners with money, if nobody before the first money owners had any money?

**Tags:** currency, money, economic-history

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Money is declared legal tender. It's there because the government decided to issue it. It's printed /minted and circulated by the government. It's not much different from the game called monopoly. You use the monopoly money because the game designers made it available.  
> **username_0**: I think the monopoly game does not concern itself with this question. Entities "somehow" have money and they just give it to players. Declaring money to be legal tender is one thing but getting it in people's hands is another matter. I don't think the government just gave everyone some amount of money to start with.  
> **username_1**: that's how it usually works though. When the Euro war introduced it wasn't different either. There was something else before (local currencies) but these were made useless and all you could do is change your old money (further back, whatever means of payment) into new money, of you had any.  
> **username_0**: The point of the question is to ask how the transition from "no currency" to "some currency" happened. Not from "one currency" to "another currency" which is easy to imagine.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-09-20. Score: 2

Money developed from commodities or debt indicators (such as debt measuring sticks). Some sort of primitive money was used in pre-history so exact origin is disputed (d’Errico et al. 2012, Ferguson 2008, Glyn 2002).

Hence, what has happened is that people first were exchanging goods for other goods (what in economics we would call barter or what some social anthropologists call gift giving if it’s within some community connected by social relations). At some point either one of the two things happened:

1. One of the commodities was widely desired (grain, sheep, stones, metals) and people realized they can avoid the problem of double coincidence of wants by just generally accepting that commodity. At a point of time that most people in the community accepted that commodity in payment, the commodity became money. For example, if that commodity was silver everyone with silver had some money from that point on.
2. If money developed from debt then at some point people started to trade tally sticks/bones that represented some amount of something owed (like grain). In that case anyone who had some tally stick/bone would have money once it would be generally accepted.

In both case the money come from something already preexisting in community. Historically people didn’t just one day invented money, rather some goods gradually became money over time. Hence at the point people developed money, most people already had some money by accumulating some commodities in the past through various ways.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: what do you even mean by that?  
> **username_3**: @user253751 Seems like that would have happened with the ascent of states, which could mint money. I have read (but hardly know anything about this) is that a reason for the spread (not the development) of money was that the state demanded taxes in its currency, forcing you to acquire some of it by participating in the market. This also made the state budget somewhat more flexible. When the state creates its currency, there is no debt covering (though there is an expected future obligation).  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-09-20. Score: 1

Money represents property, that is assets. If it represents nothing then it's worth nothing. This is why we were on the gold standard for a long time until at some point the economy felt stable enough to let it float somewhat free. But of course everytime investors feel scared there's a rush to gold.

So it's property that defined wealth first. Maybe furs, clothing, a good battle-axe. Maybe a woman - we are talking prehistory here - or a hut of a kind. Maybe a boat - a canoe. Amd of course food. That was wealth. As bartering developed the idea of a common but rare token, that was easily transported but signified a storage of wealth developed. I've heard of cowrie shells being used in places - perhaps the Americas or the Pacific. I don't recall.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2022-10-03. Score: -1

when goods exchanging，goods can not shift at same time，it must be one thing give one man in advance，and if record it， we will have one un-standard currency. secend, third one comfirm the "currency" then it will change to standarded.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: we could use paper to record, we could use gold or shell to embody record, or even just use brian or comunity consensus to record.  

---

