The history of money

Money
Money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value and for storing wealth. Almost every society now has a money economy based on coins and notes of one kind or another. However, this has not always been true. In primitive societies a system of barter was used. Barter was a system of direct exchange of goods. Someone could exchange a sheep, for example, for anything in the market place that they considered to be of equal value. Barter, however, was a very unsatisfactory system because people’s precise needs seldom coincided. People needed a more practical system of exchange, and various money systems developed based on goods which the numbers of a society recognized as having value. Cattle, grain, teeth, shells, feathers, skulls, salt, elephant tusks and tobacco have all been used. Precious metals gradually took over because, when made into coins, they were portable, durable, recognizable and divisible into larger and smaller units of value.
A coin is a piece of metal, usually disc-shaped, which bears lettering, designs or numbers showing its value. Until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries coins were given monetary worth based on the exact amount of metal contained in them, but most modern coins are based on face value, the value that governments choose to give them, irrespective of the actual metal content. Coins have been made of gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), plastic, and in China even from pressed tea leaves. Most governments now issued paper money in the form of notes, which are really “promises to pay”. Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much more convenient in the modern world. Cheques, bankers’ cards and credit cards are being used increasingly and it is possible to imagine a world where “money” in the form of coins and paper currency will no longer be used. Even today, in the United States, many places- especially filling stations- will not accept cash at night for security reasons.

Exercise 1: Find words or expressions which mean:
A place to buy petrol.
A place where goods are bought and sold.
The period between 1801 and 1900.
The bony structure of the head.
Round and flat in shape.
An exchange of goods for other goods.
Can be divided
Lasts a long time.
Can be carried.
Can be recognized



skull.
Divisible
portable
a filling station
barter
durable
disc-shaped
recognizable
the nineteenth century
a market place

Exercise 2:
+ Money is used for buying things
+ Shampoo is used for washing your hair.
Make sentences with knife/ pen/ key/ camera/ suitcase/ toothpaste/ wallet.
Exercise 3: Complete these sentences.
A place where you can fill your petrol tank is a filling station.
A special room where you can wait is a ____________.
A pill which helps you to sleep is a ___________.
A licence which allows you to drive is a ____________.
A glove which boxers wear it is a ____________ .
Oil you can cook with is ____________.
A pool where you can swim is a _____________.
Special liquid you can wash up with is __________.
A boat with sails is a ____________.


MONEY
Some English sayings about money
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan loses both itself and friend From “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare.
Have you ever borrowed money from anyone? Who from? How much?
Have you ever lent money from anyone? Who to? How much?
Are you in debt at the money? (Do you owe anyone any money?)
Does anyone owe you any money? Who? How much?
Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves.
Do you save money? Are you saving for anything at the moment? What?
Do you keep your money in the bank/ in a safe/ in the money-box/ under the bed?
Have you got a bank account?
Do you get any interest? What’s the rate of interest?
If you had a bank over draft, how much interest would you have to pay?
Live now-pay later
Have you bought anything on hire purchase? What? Did you pay a deposit?
Do you think it is a good idea?
Have you got a credit card?
Which one? (Visa? American express? Diner’s Club? Access?)
When you play pay cash, do you ask for a discount? Do you usually get it?
Annual income twenty pounds,annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six,
result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six,
result misery.
(Mr. Micawber from “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens)
Do you spend more than you earn or less than you earn?
Do you have a budget for your money?
Do you