“Money”: When People Started Using It?

Sometimes we face a grimy, tattered dollar bill that resembles like it's been around since the beginning of time. Surely it hasn't, but the history of human beings using cash currency does go back 40,000 years back.
Scientists have found exchange and trade through the archaeological record, starting in Upper Paleolithic period when troops of hunters traded for the best stony weapons and tools. Firstly, people were swapped, making direct deals between two parties of desirable objects.
Then money came into action. Its form has evolved over the millennia from natural objects to coins to paper to digital versions available today. But whatever the format, human beings have used for a long period of time currency as a means of exchange, a method of payment, a standard of value and a store of wealth along with a unit of account.
Why do people need currency?
There are many theories explaining the origin of money, in parts as money has many functions:
1. It smoothens exchange as a measure of value.
2. It brings different societies together by enabling gift-giving and reciprocity.
3. It preserves social hierarchies
4. And also, it serves as a medium of state power.
It's hard to exactly determine interactions involving currency of different kinds, but evidences suggest that they have originated from gift exchanges and debt repayments.
Follow the money to see the trade routes
In the past, no society was completely self-sustaining, and money has given freedom to people to interact with other groups. People used different forms of currency to utilize resources, reduce risks and create friendships in response to specific social and political conditions they have.

By: Saksham Gupta
Content: https://www.livescience.com/59560-when-did-people-start-using-money.html