Money is what people use to buy things they need or want. A long time ago, people didn't use money. So how did they get the things they wanted? Well, there is a long and interesting story about this.
At first, they would exchange something they had for something they needed. For example, if the shoemaker needed some bread, he would give the baker shoes and the baker would give him bread. This was called "bartering". Bartering worked fine for a while. But after the baker had too many shoes, the shoemaker still needed more bread. What could they do? The solution to this problem was money.
Money is basically an agreement among people. People agree that some metal or paper will be worth a certain amount of bread or a certain number of shoes. There were many earlier forms of money, such as cattle, salt, grain and shells. But it was not easy to move them or store them.
So coins began to take the place of things. Coins had a set value and could be stored long. A coin says right on it how much it is worth. Different coins are worth different amounts. It became possible for people to trade in a standardised (标准化的) way.
About three hundred years ago, paper money came into wider use. Paper money is cheaper to make than coins. It is also easier to carry around. Now people use paper money and coins in most countries. We call these kinds of money cash.
Cash has been popular for hundreds of years. But these days, things seem to have changed. Cashless payment has come into our lives and changed our world.
China was the first country in the world to use paper money. Now, centuries later, analysts (分析家) believe that China may soon become the first cashless society. Cashless payment apps such as Alipay and WeChat Pay are becoming more common in China. The buyer just scans (扫描) the Quick Respond Code (二维码) of the seller, or the other way around. Then they can get the things they want. No physical money is needed in this process. Is tomorrow already here?
