In one sense, the lubricant of all economies. An enigmatic textbook description says that 'money is what money does'. Money is often equated with notes and coins, but it is more complicated than that. More explicitly, money is held to have three functions: 1. As a means of exchange, more convenient than barter; 2. As a unit of account, enabling the value of items to be measured in, say, dollars and cents, so that you know the cost of your lunch or your new shoes; 3. As a store of value, enabling you to store your wealth in a form which will not melt in the sun or rot in the rain. Money as we know it, in the form of notes and coins, is an advance on a bag of salt (the Roman soldiers' payment, hence the word 'salary', from the Latin sal, salt) or a bar of gold. Money has always existed in some form. Primitive tribes recognised the need for a medium of exchange; cattle were popular, being self-transporting, but had the disadvantages of being bulky and of varying quality. The Lydians used money in the form of precious metal in the seventh century BC; the Chinese were using paper money in 800 AD. Now 'plastic money' in the form of credit and debit cards is commonplace and has opened the door to electronic transactions which could eventually eliminate the need for physical money. See also: currency.
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