Money,Money,Money! Chapter 2

Before money was invented, people used to swap things they thought had a similar value. If a wheat farmer wanted some chickens, he needed to find a chicken farmer who wanted some wheat. Then both farmer had to agree how much wheat to swap for each chicken. It was sometimes difficult to agree on what goods were worth, so that both sides could be satisfied with the deal.

This system of swapping things was called bartering. On the walls of ancient Egyptian buildings, constructed 4,500 years ago, are pictures and writing describing bartering. From these descriptions, we know that bartering was used in Egypt at that time.

If the goods that you wanted were not produced in your area, you had to travel long distances to swap the things you had grown or made with other people.
People who lived around the Mediterranean Sea , between Europe and North Aferica, travelled hundreds of kilometres by land and sea to barter goods.

People from Greece and Brete transported olive oil, pottery and metalwork to Egypt and swapped them for valuable vases and precious jewels.

The Romans, who lived in Italy, took olive oil, wool and wine to places where they could swap them for spices from Arbia, gold from West Africa, wheat from North Africa and silk from China.
If the people you were bartering with didn't want your goods, you couldn't buy anything from them. People realised that a better system was needed: a system that used something that could always be swapped and that always had the same value.

Everyone agreed that metals, such as gold and silver, could be used. So around 4,000 years ago, some people started paying each other in gold and silver.

Bartering was still used in many places, but slowly it became more common to buy and sell goods using precious metals. However, even today, bartering is used in many places around the world.
Ancient Egytian paintings on the walls of buildings constructed 3,500 years ago, show gold being carefully weighed out on scales. The paintings tell us that, by this time, gold was being used as a type of money in Egypt. The more gold you had, the more goods you could buy.

Every time you bought or sold something with gold, you had to carefully weigh out the metal to make sure you paid the right amount. Every shop owner had a set of scales to make sure they were paid enough gold. It was easy to make mistakes, and some people cheated by using heavier weights on one side of their scales. An even better system for buying and selling goods was needed.

Verbs learned:
1 invent 2 swap 3 satisfy 4 barter 5 construct
6 describe 7 travel 8 grow 9 transport 10 realise
11 agree 12 weigh 13 cheat

Vocabulary learned: