When shells are currency, why don't people go to the beach to pick up some shells? Make yourself rich

The earliest currency in human society is shells, which are called "shell coins." More than 4000 years ago, the entire East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Oceania, and Africa were using shells as currency. At that time, shells were an international currency. This is probably the earliest "globalization" of human society.

So, the question is, are all the people living by the sea millionaires at the time? Can you make a fortune by picking shells at the beach?

Arabic merchants used shells as currency, drawn in 1845

First: Cigarettes can also be currency

The book "Historical Records of the Western Han Dynasty" in China "Book" recorded: "Tai Shigong said:'Agricultural and commercial transactions are accessible, and turtle shell money, knife cloth, coins prosper.'" In the economic activities of human society, there are actually many things that can be used as money. use. Turtles, shells, gold, money, knives, and cloth are all acceptable. Turtle refers to tortoise shells; shells are shells; during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, gold mainly refers to bronze; money refers to shovel; knife refers to a weapon—a knife; Cloth is cloth, and linen is also currency at the beginning. "The Book of Songs" contains the record of "The chichi of the gangster, the trade of silk, the bandits come to trade the silk, come and seek me".

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, the currencies in circulation in various vassal states were of various shapes. Although copper coins were used as currency at that time, they still imitated the shapes of some original goods. Qi, Yan and Zhao popular knife coins , The knife coin is like a knife; Zheng and Wei popular cloth coins. The cloth coins in the Warring States period were not in the shape of a piece of cloth, but imitated the shovel of agricultural tools; money is actually a kind of shovel, which is the original meaning of the word "money"; Gold refers to bronze. Gold, money, knives, and cloth have all turned into metal, while tortoises and shells are still tangible tortoise shells and shells. However, Chu's currency ant nose money is made of copper shells imitating shells.

Copper knives from 2000 BC to 1500 BC

In the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, in fact, any useful goods can be used as currency, and even farm tools can be used as currency. For money, the Chinese word "money" means shovel. Shells are not the only currency, but among the many currencies, there is one currency as the main currency in circulation. The "Salt and Iron Theory" says: "Xuanbei is used in Xia Dynasty, purple stone is used in Zhou people, and later generations ( Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period) or money knife cloth.”

During the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, shells and farm tools were all made into bronze currency, but it was very inconvenient to carry. Qin, Zhao, and Wei came up with a more advanced currency called "won money", which was a copper coin with a round hole. After Qin Shihuang unified the world, he also unified currency, writing, and weights and measures. As a result, copper coins with round square holes were used for currency. The use of copper coins continued until the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

Copper coins in the Tang Dynasty

In ancient China, copper coins were always the currency in circulation, but copper coins were only used for small-scale commodity transactions, and bulk commodity transactions used gold and silver. This is the so-called "gold bar" and "silver ingot". In fact, the ancients rarely used silver ingots and gold bars in their daily lives, because silver and gold were both precious metals and very expensive. The silver used in daily life is broken silver. The large pieces of silver ingots and silver ingots were actually used as storage currency. There were no banks in ancient times. People generally converted huge wealth into gold and silver and stored them under the ground. Some silver and silver After the gold was buried, it was forgotten by the original owner for various special reasons, so it was discovered by modern people.

Any goods can be used as currency. Cigarettes can actually be used. In some prisons in modern society, prisoners often use cigarettes as money. In prisons, cigarettes are more common, but they are isolated from the outside world. , Cigarettes are relatively scarce, and have use value, so they can become a special currency, realizing barter.

Copper coins and cigarettes can be used as currency, but shells used as currency are more scarce commodities than copper coins and cigarettes. Shells are actually gold and silver for later generations. Why do you say that?

Second: Shell coins are very expensive

Our current banknotes use numbers to measure the size, but numbers also have units. The unit of RMB is yuan, jiao, and cent. 10 is divided into 1 jiao, and 10 jiao is 1 yuan. The unit of U.S. dollar is dollar and cent, 100 cents equals 1 U.S. dollar. Because it is a decimal system, we often ignore the existence of paper currency units. In fact, yuan is used for bulk goods transactions, while jiao and cents are small-scale commodity transactions. Ancient currency was metal currency, gold and silver were used for bulk goods transactions, and copper coins were used for small-scale commodity transactions.

Shell coins are actually as precious as gold and silver. They are not ordinary shells that can be picked up by the sea.

Shells that used to be currency

Judging from the unearthed shell coins, the shells that were used as shell coins at that time were actually "babies", including tabby baby, ring-patterned shellfish, Awen scallop shell, pseudo date shell, goods shell and so on. There is a family of sea shells called "baby family", just like cats, equines, and bovines on land.

Seashells belonging to the "baby family" are now generally rare wild animals. In ancient times, the shells of these marine creatures were even more expensive and more beautiful than tiger skins and deer skins. Now, let’s briefly introduce these kinds of shells:

Tabby baby, commonly known as tiger skin shell, is the shell of the black star snail. This creature is mainly distributed in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. The surface of the tabby baby is smooth, like The enamel of the porcelain is very beautiful.

虎斑宝贝

Ring-shaped shellfish, commonly known as white shellfish, are distributed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but are mainly located in warm water areas. The South my country Sea is rich in ring-shaped shellfish.

Awen cotta shell is widely distributed in the coastal areas of our country. Awen cotta shell is also known as "Arabian snail". The reason why it is called "Arabian snail" is because of the shell pattern of this sea shell. Similar in shape to Arabic, Awen scallop is commonly called "purple shell" in China. Purple shell has medicinal value. Although it is not very expensive, it is not an ordinary shell.

Jujube shells are distributed in shallow waters and are often hidden under reefs. The shells of Jujube shells are also very beautiful.

Huo shells, also known as "Huang Bao Snails", live in the warm waters of tropical and subtropical seas. The color of shells ranges from light yellow to dark yellow, with a layer of enamel on the surface, which is very smooth and beautiful. Daibei itself is an ornament with aesthetic value.

Very beautiful ring-patterned shellfish

Therefore, shells that can become currency are relatively precious, and conform to the characteristics of being rare and expensive. Shells that can become currency also have a certain practical value and can be used as decorations. In this regard, they are similar to later gold and silver. Gold and silver can also be made into jewelry.

Third: Why will shell coins be eliminated?

Since shell coins are more precious and have certain decorative functions, why later humans never use shells as currency anymore? Because of the advancement of human metal smelting technology, the output of gold and silver is increasing. Metal currency has replaced shells. After all, shells are biological resources in the ocean. With the growth of social wealth, shells are not enough. People would rather use copper. I don’t want to use real shells anymore. Although the quantity of gold, silver, copper, and iron was large, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the output of copper was obviously insufficient, which resulted in a "money shortage". During the Han and Tang Dynasties, copper coins were the main currency in circulation, and wealth was based on The amount of copper coins is a measure. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the main currency in circulation became silver. Why did it change from copper coins to silver? Because there are not enough copper mines. In fact, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, silver was the main currency in circulation, and there were not so many silver mines, but just at this time, a new route was opened. Europeans discovered the New World of America, and Europeans mined silver in the Americas through The inflow of trade to China supports the monetary system with silver as the main currency in circulation.

Paper currency appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, which was related to the insufficient supply of copper coins

If the global wealth is now calculated by gold and silver, then the amount of gold and silver will be obviously insufficient. Therefore, metal currency will inevitably be replaced by paper money. We now use banknotes as currency in circulation. However, some scholars believe that more than 90% of the total amount of money in the world is actually not physical banknotes. They are just numbers. These "numbers" representing wealth are actually not necessary to be printed. Paper money comes out because, to a certain extent, paper money reflects the credit relationship between people.

When calculating social wealth, even gold, silver, copper, iron, and paper money are not enough. Think about it, is a biological shell enough? If humans have been using shells as currency, then the sea shells on the earth may have long been extinct, and their own growth rate and reproduction speed cannot keep up with the growth rate of wealth in human society.

uses shells as currency, so are the people living on the seaside richer than the people living inland? Actually it is not necessarily! In the short term, people living around gold and silver mines will become wealthy first, but the prices of gold and silver will eventually be leveled off over time.

Silver coins unearthed in Europe

Let’s take gold mines as an example to illustrate the problem of "price difference". There are many gold mines on the earth, some are few, and the A Gold resources are very rich. If there is more gold, the price will be cheaper. The gold resources in B are very scarce. If gold is scarce, the price will be high. Businessmen have noticed this phenomenon for a long time, so they shipped the gold from A Go to land B to sell, buy at a low price, sell at a high price, and earn the difference. With the passage of time, the demand for gold in Site A will continue to increase, and even the output of gold mines cannot keep up with the demand. Then, the price of gold in Site A also begins to rise. After a large amount of gold was transported from A to B, the price of gold in B also slowly fell. Finally, the gold prices in A and B were the same. The same is true for shells. Although the seaside is rich in shells, once it becomes currency, a large number of merchants will buy seashells from here and transport them to the inland. In the end, the price of shells around the world is basically the same. The human beings living by the sea must sell seashells. Otherwise, how can they obtain the materials they want? Gold, silver, and shells cannot be eaten when they are hungry, and cannot be worn as clothes when they are cold. People mine gold and silver from the ground and catch the sea shells in the sea. They must be exchanged. Moreover, precious metals are mined to capture the sea. Bei, it costs itself.

When shells are not currency, the status of shells has plummeted. People more than 4,000 years ago liked to use shells as decorations. In fact, it is largely because shells are a symbol of wealth, and there are some imaginative elements in it. . People nowadays like to wear jewelry made of gold and diamonds. In fact, gold and diamonds are symbols of wealth. The color and shape of gold and diamonds are undeniably beautiful, but they are not the most beautiful on earth. Beautiful colors and shapes.

When shells lost their currency status, people stopped pursuing shells. Many beautiful seashells were even forgotten by modern people. If we don’t study shells, we really don’t know that there is such a thing on earth. The existence of numerous and beautiful shells.