Student booklet - A
A
THE HISTORY OF MONEY
1. SUMMARY •
Do you know what “bartering” is?
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When was the idea of coins first introduced?
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Did you know that salt was used as “money” in the past and that the Chinese were the first to use paper money? In this task, you will learn about the history of money and all its forms.
2. KEY CONTENTS The history of money: items used as a form of money in the past; symbols stamped in coins; first people to use paper money.
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Read the text and complete with the phrases from the box. became the first coins in history
the first ‘bankers’
making paper money
many treasures
doing business
protected by law
in the Greek markets
type of exchange
picture stamped on it
to be very heavy
GT4 | Unit 10 | Student booklet - A
THE HISTORY OF MONEY BARTERING Money is just a form of exchange: you have something I want and I have something you want. We can discuss how to do the exchange. For example, is what I have more valuable than what you have? Discussing this exchange is called bartering. Bartering has been in existence from the beginning of human interaction and was a way of (1) ______________. About 3,000 years ago, people started using objects, such as tools, spears, arrowheads, stone axes, animal skins, salt, colored beads, shiny stones or animals. When it was discovered that salt was desired and needed in faraway countries, people who had access to salt mines and salt lakes would pack the dried salt on camels. They would then travel hundreds of miles across the deserts to ports along the Mediterranean to sell the salt to shippers. This (2) _______________ can still be found amongst tribes in lesser civilized areas throughout the globe, like parts of Africa or the Amazon jungle. There are still some groups of people who give cows, sheep, and chickens as a gift from the bride’s parents to the intended groom. It is most likely that this is the origin of the giving of gifts at weddings and other ceremonies. The Aztecs of Mexico used little dolls made of gold. The ancient Egyptians and the ancient Celts in Ireland used little metal rings made of bronze, copper or gold, and often wore their wealth as ornaments. Ancient peoples all over the world tried using different things: rice, bread, chocolate, beans, or corn. This did not work that well, as these products were often eaten. What was needed was something that other people wanted or agreed on the value, could be carried easily, and was strong enough to withstand being passed from person to person to person, perhaps thousands of times. METAL COINS It is believed that the idea of metal coins started in ancient Turkey about 2,700 years ago. These discs were small, round and flat and made of gold or silver. Whatever the disc was worth had a (3) __________________. At about the same time, the Chinese started making tiny bronze miniatures of tools, arrows, daggers, and weapons. 3
A pocketful of these spiky, sharp things was not convenient to carry even though they were small. These items were changed into little circles of bronze with perhaps a stamped image on them, each image depicting a different item and a different value. For example, five discs with arrows might equal one disc with a dagger on it. These discs (4) __________________. They also stamped a small hole in the middle of the coin so that the coins could be strung together and worn around one’s neck. The people in ancient Greece, a neighbor and trader with Turkey, started doing the same thing. Each city-state had its own version of the coin and had banks where foreign coins could be exchanged for Greek coins to be used to buy things (5) __________________. The ancient Romans soon caught on to the practice of using coins made of precious metals. They were the first to use symbols, pictures of buildings, and heads of emperors on their coins. In ancient India, people made a ‘money tree’ with many branches and the coins were hung from in. They also stamped pictures of dragons and imaginary animals on their coins. PAPER MONEY The Chinese people found metal coins (6) ____________________ to carry around with them and decided paper was much easier to carry. At first, merchants would leave heavy strings of metal coins with a trustworthy person or agent. The agent would give the merchant a slip of paper that recorded how much money the merchant was leaving on “deposit”. These agents were (7) _______________. With silk and spice trade developing along the Silk Road, merchants didn’t have to carry all their wealth with them on camels and other pack animals. However, these promissory notes were not actual paper money, but it was the start. THE SONG DYNASTY Almost 2000 years after the Chinese invention of coins, the Song Dynasty in China began (8) __________________. The Chinese already knew how to make paper and silk. Printing on silk and on pottery was done by hand. Now they wanted to paint on paper but make it faster and make every print exactly the same. The paper was painted using woodblocks and six colors of ink. 4
GT4 | Unit 10 | Student booklet - A
In 1265, the Song Dynasty united all the provinces and printed one standard paper money that could be purchased from the government with gold or silver. Nine years later, the Song were defeated by the Mongols. THE MONGOLS Kublai Khan was the leader of the Mongols from 1215 to 1294. They made their own form of paper money and brought it to Persia (now Iran). They also showed it to Italy’s adventurer, Marco Polo, who stayed with the Khan’s court for 17 years. When he returned to Italy, he brought (9) _______________ and introduced paper money to the Roman Emperor. This way of trading currency spread to all points of the Roman Empire, from Greece, Syria, and Turkey to North Africa to France and to Spain. MODERN PAPER MONEY By the 1600s, governments all over the world had borrowed the idea of issuing paper money to its citizens. The paper money could be purchased with anything that the government considered valuable, such as gold, silver, other precious metals, gems, spices, or silk. The technique of printing money developed over the centuries. Today it involves trained craftspeople and artists to design the look of each currency, technicians to develop the different inks. Special mixtures, used to make the paper, are (10) __________________. SOURCE: https://www.coolkidfacts.com/history-of-money/
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Read the text again and discuss these questions with a partner. 1.
What is bartering?
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What did early people use as barter? 5
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Why was salt used in trade?
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When and where did the idea of metal coins start?
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Why were coins better to use than food?
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Who were the first people to use paper money?
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How did paper money reach Italy and other countries?
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When did governments start to issue money to their citizens?
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Discuss the following with your partner. You’re going to listen to someone talking about the history of money. Before you listen, read through the statements below. Do you think they are true (coin) or false (bill)?
1. The earliest kind of money was used about 3,000 years ago.
2. Shells were used as a kind of fiat money.
3. The first metal coins appeared in Greece.
4. The first coins were round.
5. Paper money first appeared in China.
6. The idea of paper money travelled quickly to Europe.
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GT4 | Unit 10 | Student booklet - A
Now listen and check your answers.
SOURCE: https://www.onestopenglish.com/clil-lesson-plans/money-and-banks/550876.article
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You will either: 1.
Create a poster with the currencies of different countries;
2.
Give a two-minute presentation on the history of money, talking about: - bartering
- coins
- paper money
Note: you should use illustrations, or video excerpts to enrich your presentations. 7