The history of the development of full-fledged money and the reasons for the transition to inferior money. Full money

There are such types of money as full and defective money.

Full-value money is money whose real value is equal to its nominal value. Full-fledged money includes gold and silver bars; gold and silver coins; gems(with some approximation).

Defective money is money whose real value is lower than its nominal value. Defective money is divided into money substitutes (Central Bank notes, coins, treasury notes, funds in demand accounts in banks) and money surrogates (checks, bills, electronic money).

They also allocate actual money, i.e. which characterize independent movement among goods. Real, full and defective money are real money. Real money actually represents the value indicated on the face value; they really exist in economic circulation, they exist physically. Ideal, or mentally imagined, money serves as a measure of value and does not physically exist.

Historically, full-fledged money appeared first. Their role began to be played by noble metals - silver and gold. Main advantage full money- flexible adaptation to the needs of turnover without prejudice to the owners of money. Those. when there was an excess of coins compared to the needs of circulation, they were put aside into treasures, and in the opposite situation, they were returned to circulation. At the same time, the owners of money did not lose much, thanks to the property of the non-susceptibility of full-fledged money to depreciation (except for exceptional cases, for example, when in the 16th century silver and gold poured into Europe from America).

Factors in the transition from full-fledged money to inferior ones: 1) The fleeting use of inferior money and the acquisition of intermediary status by money. 2) Development of credit relations. 3) Strengthening the state, which uses inferior money to cover its expenses and legitimizes it with the power of power. 4) Growing need for money with the rapid development of commodity-money relations.

Defective money is divided into credit and paper. Credit money was issued by the bank on the security of its existing assets, against actually completed transactions. Paper money was issued, in fact, against the property of the entire state. Now, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, all money is credit. However, in fact modern banknote has a dual character.

More on topic 2.3. Full-fledged money and its forms:

Marxist interpretation of the amount of full-fledged money required for circulation.
TOPICS OF CONTROL WORKS in the discipline "MONEY, CREDIT, BANKING" for part-time students of the direction "Economics" and the specialty "World Economy"

- money. The functions of money were originally performed by noble metals - gold and silver. IN Ancient Rus' silver bars served as money. In the 11th century coins practically went out of circulation in the 12th century. silver payment bars appeared - hryvnia. The development of monetary circulation was greatly influenced by the East, since feudally fragmented Rus' was at that time under the yoke of the Golden Horde. Initially, the ruble was synonymous with the hryvnia, later the name of the monetary unit was assigned to the ruble, and the weight unit - to the hryvnia. It is officially believed that the ruble originated from the hryvnia weighing 200 g of silver, i.e. The first rubles were in bullion. Payment bars in the form of hryvnia were irredeemable, served only large wholesale transactions and were used mainly for paying tribute. Therefore, the appearance of coins used to service retail turnover was an objective necessity.

Coin circulation in Rus' began in the 14th century; coins began to be minted in a strictly defined quantity. mints Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan. The ruble turned from an ingot into a countable ruble. Important role The reform of Elena Glinskaya in 1535-1538 played a role in the formation of monetary circulation, which provided for the withdrawal of inferior money from monetary circulation, the streamlining of the weight content of the ruble and the introduction decimal system cash account. As a result, the ruble became equal to 10 hryvnia, 1 hryvnia to 10 kopecks.

Money(denga) - Russian silver coin of the XIV-XVII centuries. Minted since the end of the 14th century. in Moscow, from the beginning of the 15th century. - in almost all other Russian principalities, as well as in Novgorod (from 1420) and Pskov (from 1425) Images on coins of the 15th century. were distinguished by their exceptional diversity, and in Moscow the most popular was the image of a horseman with a falcon or with a spear, which later became the coat of arms of the city. Initially, 200 coins were minted from a hryvnia of silver (48 spools), which made up the Moscow ruble. The remaining principalities gradually, as a centralized state was formed, were deprived of the right to mint their own coins. As a result of the reform of Elena Glinskaya, 300 coins with the image of a horseman with a spear, weighing 0.68 g each, or 600 coins with the image of a horseman with a sword, weighing 0.34 g, began to be minted from a silver hryvnia. The latter became known as “Moscow money”; later they began to be called Novgorodkas or kopeks.

In accordance with the reform of Peter I, the silver kopeck was replaced by a copper one, the silver ruble was introduced - a coin similar to the European thaler, the counting hryvnia became a silver coin of 10 kopecks, gold chervonets began to be regularly minted, and from 1755 - imperials and semi-imperials. From 1700 to 1816, copper money was regularly issued under different names (1/2 kopeck, money).

The assignment of the universal equivalent function to gold was facilitated by its basic properties: qualitative homogeneity, quantitative divisibility, portability (it is embodied in a small amount of metal a large number of labor), the safety of this noble metal. Gold is one of the most labor-intensive metals to mine. This is a fairly rare metal, and its industrial development is carried out even when the rock contains very little of it (usually at least 6 g per 1 ton of rock). All the gold mined in the world from ancient times to the beginning of the 80s of the XX century was estimated by experts at 100 thousand tons. Collected together it would be a cube, the side of which would be only 17 m. To extract this amount of gold it was necessary would process such an amount of rock that could be depicted in the form of a cone with a diameter of 9 km and a height of 2.5 km. Money as a medium of exchange takes the form of a coin. The origin of the word “coin” is associated with the name of the temple of Juno-Moneta, on the territory of which in the 4th century. BC e. minting of banknotes began Ancient Rome. The form of the coin reflects the local and political character, which limits the circulation of money to the territories of individual states and internal trade turnover. Coins speak the most different languages and “wear” various national clothes.

One of the most important results of evolution was the appearance of denominations - concepts that personified a certain weight standard of the monetary metal and were assigned to money as their names. The new qualities of money, which bullion did not have, made it possible to limit calculations to simple recalculation and, over time, to abandon weighing. Signs of these qualities were inscriptions and signs on both sides of the coins. The emergence of coins was due to the development of commodity-money relations. This realized one of the most important qualities of metal - cost.

Gold money acquires its value through the process of gold mining. It is their own internal value that gives them absolute stability independent of the commodity market. When the internal value obtained in the sphere of gold production coincides with the exchange value of gold in the sphere of circulation, the stability of the circulation of gold coins is achieved.

Until the beginning of the 19th century. The monetary systems of most countries were dominated by the parallel circulation of gold and silver coins, which had the same status. At the same time, the price relationship between gold and silver was not officially established, but was determined by market mechanisms. In some countries, the circulation of full-fledged coins made of silver and gold was carried out at a price ratio between gold and silver established by the state.

- a soft metal, and coins gradually wear out in circulation. Scientists have calculated that on average a gold coin loses 0.07% of its own weight each year. This means that over 2600 years of circulation of gold coins, the total loss exceeded 2 thousand tons of gold. Worn-out coins cease to be a valid equivalent of goods being sold. The functional existence of gold displaces its real existence. The contradiction between gold as a coin and gold as a universal equivalent leads to the need to replace gold with signs of value - paper money. Along with this, money, as a means of circulation, acts as a fleeting intermediary in the exchange of goods. In this regard, the idea of reducing the cost of monetary material appeared and began to make its way.

In conditions of metal circulation, simple reproduction required an annual influx of gold, as the natural wear and tear of coins occurred. In this case, the state makes huge expenditures of social capital necessary for the development of the gold mining industry. In the absence of its own production, it is forced to import precious metals in exchange for exporting goods. The growth rate of metal receipts, taking into account the speed of circulation of money, is closely related to the production or purchase of gold and silver. Difficulties arise due to insufficient supply of precious metals. Due to the fact that gold and silver are not able to generate interest due to their own volume, full-fledged money has become of little use in servicing financial transactions associated with the circulation of loan capital. The circulation of coins became a brake on the development of individual capital, since it reduced the speed of their turnover. The bulky money supply led to a slowdown in the circulation of the commodity mass and thereby to a fall in the annual rate surplus value. At the same time, the costs of sending gold across the regions increased, and the costs of gold mining increased. Limited natural reserves, inability of existing production volumes to keep up with requirements social production led to a deadlock.

Over time, the names of monetary units are separated from their real content for the following reasons:

the introduction of foreign money among less developed peoples (in Ancient Rome, the basis of the monetary system was the copper asset; gold and silver were initially circulated as foreign goods);
displacement of less noble metals by more noble ones as labor productivity increases: copper was replaced by silver, silver by gold, the cost relationship between gold and silver in the Ancient East of the 15th-16th centuries. BC e. was 1:6, in the market economy of the 19th century. – 1:15, currently – 1:50;
State counterfeiting of money.

Full-fledged money was issued in the form of bars, coins, and banknotes with full gold plating. The first full-fledged money arose in the form of bullion. To overcome the inconvenience associated with determining the quantity! and the quality of the metal contained in the ingot, the state began to brand the ingots, indicating the purity and weight of the metal. The first money in the form of metal ingots, confirmed by a certain stamp, was in circulation in Ancient Babylon and Egypt. The disadvantages of full-fledged metal money in the form of ingots were poor divisibility and transportability. The most convenient form of full-fledged money was coins. The first coins began to be minted by priests in the state of Lydia in western Asia Minor in the 7th century. BC e. In Rus', its own coinage arose in the 9th-10th centuries. In the Middle Ages, in conditions of feudal fragmentation, coinage was carried out not only by kings, but also by numerous feudal lords, as well as cities. With the formation of national states, coinage became the privilege of the central government. At the same time, as K. Marx noted, “as a coin, money loses its universal character and acquires a national, local character.”

The round, disk shape of the coin, as the most convenient for circulation, replaced other forms used in antiquity (rectangular, oval). Each coin has a specific image and inscription - a legend containing the name of the city, state, year of minting, and the name of the coin. The coin has a different face (obverse), back (reverse) and edge (edge). A coin with the same name as a monetary unit is called the main one, and a coin that combines several monetary units is called a combined coin (for example, in pre-revolutionary Russia gold coins in denominations of 10 and 5 rubles). A coin that forms part of a monetary unit is called fractional (for example, a 10-kopeck coin in pre-revolutionary Russia).

To give the coin strength, it was minted from precious metal with the addition of a certain amount of ligature. A coin whose face value corresponds to the value of the metal it contains and the cost of minting is called full-fledged; for a defective coin it exceeds this value.

The quantitative content of precious metal in the alloy from which the coin is minted is called fineness. In countries with a metric system for marking hallmarks, the coin alloy used for minting gold and silver high-grade, i.e. A full-fledged coin consisted of 900 parts by weight of currency metal and 100 parts of a ligature. In Great Britain, the fineness of the coin alloy was designated according to the karat system: a gold coin had 22 carats, or 916 parts of the currency metal according to metric system, silver - 12 carats, or 500 parts in the metric system.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, where a spool-type system of marking was used, the hallmark of gold and silver coins was expressed by the weight amount of gold and silver in 96 units of the alloy. Thus, the Russian gold coin had a fineness of 84.4, which corresponded to the 900th fineness in the metric system. The state allowed a limit for the deviation of the weight and fineness of the coin from the established sample - remedium. If the remedium was violated (the coin was damaged), the coin was withdrawn from circulation. The rules governing the minting of coins in the country are combined in the coin regulations, which change in accordance with changes in monetary systems.

There are a large number of classifications of money according to forms and types, which are based on the following criteria.

1. Status (view )money issuer (state, private, corporate, municipal, treasury, banking, etc.).
2. Carrier (material )which is used to create money (commodity, metal, paper, electronic).
3. Type and degree of security of money (full-fledged, fully backed by the value of the material from which the money is made; partially backed by the value of the monetary material (“cut” coins); partially or fully backed by precious metals and (or) other tangible property in the possession of the issuer and, if desired, the money holder can be exchanged for this property; partially or fully secured by the issuer’s property, but not exchanged for this property; unsecured (and, accordingly, irredeemable)).
4. Degree of liquidity. According to this criterion, various categories of money are distinguished, each of which corresponds to a particular monetary aggregate; At the top of the money supply pyramid is money with absolute liquidity, which have the status of legal tender (“money itself”); money with partial or incomplete liquidity is called “quasi-money”, “almost money” or “money surrogates”.
5. Scope of use (international, national, local, corporate).
6. Methods of use (cash and non-cash, or deposit; the latter differ by the types of payment instruments with which non-cash money is used).

There are other classifications of money. One of the most widespread is the classification of money according to natural-functional trait, according to which there are three main types of money:

commodity ( commodity money) ]
full ( full-bodies money) ]
irredeemable ( fiat money) .

Let us consider in more detail each of the named species and their varieties (forms).

Commodity money

This type of money appeared at the dawn of the development of commodity-money relations, when some goods emerged from the world of goods, which most effectively performed the functions of a universal equivalent of value and a means of exchange. In the group of commodity money the following forms can be distinguished:

1) animal money – goods that are objects and products of animal origin: livestock, furs, shells, corals, etc.;
2) vegetabilistic money – goods plant origin: grain, fruits, tobacco, etc.;
3) hyloistic money – objects and products of labor containing metals and other inanimate substances: tools, weapons, jewelry, gold sand, precious stones, salt, etc.

In some countries where the slave trade was widespread, people were used as commodity money.

In modern conditions, in the event of a serious disorder in monetary circulation (cash and non-cash), people can also turn to commodity money. Cigarettes, vodka (other alcoholic drinks), matches, scarce food products, etc. can be used as such. Obviously, in this case, the use of commodity money cannot be long-term, since this is fraught with serious disruption of the national economy.

Full money

This group includes the following main forms of money:

1) metal ingots (precious);
2) coins made of precious metals (mainly gold and silver);
3) banknotes fully covered with precious metal.

The first full-fledged money was issued in the form ingots In order to overcome the inconvenience associated with determining the quantity and quality of the metal contained in the ingot, the authorities began to put stamps on them, certifying the weight and purity of the ingot. Branded ingots were in circulation already in Ancient Egypt and Babylon. Their significant drawback was their weak divisibility.

It is believed that the first coins were minted in the Lydian kingdom under King Croesus in the 6th century. BC. They were made from a natural alloy of gold and silver (electra) and were square in shape. The word “money” itself in a number of Western languages (English “money”) comes from Latin word"moneta", which is associated with the name of the Roman goddess Juno Moneta. On the territory of the temple of this goddess in the 4th century. BC. The minting of coins of Ancient Rome began. In 600–300 BC. Round-shaped coins were minted in China. Coins minted in the Roman Empire were distributed to the colonies and distant countries with which Rome traded. Since 800–900 AD Most European countries and Rus' have their own coinage. Since the weight content of the first coins often coincided with the denomination indicated on them, the name of the weight unit was usually repeated in the monetary unit (hryvnia, pound, etc.).

Strictly speaking, full-fledged money also falls into the category of commodity money, but precious metals are a special commodity. Full-fledged metallic money stood out from the world of commodity money due to the fact that it best satisfied the requirements that apply to goods that claim to perform monetary functions. These requirements are:

1) safety. Gold and silver, unlike cattle, hides, grain and other commodity money, can be stored indefinitely; even long-term circulation of metal money leads to very insignificant losses of metal as a result of abrasion;
2) homogeneity. Precious metals have the same chemical composition, that at equal weight bullion and coins (calculated on pure metal) assumes equality of their value. This is not always true for commodity money. For example, two cows acting as commodity money, even with the same breed and absolutely equal weight, can have different ages and health, and accordingly have different milk yields and meat quality;
3) recognition. And in terms of weight, and in color, and even more so in terms of design (embossing pattern), it is possible without special labor distinguish (without resorting to special technical means) gold and silver from other materials. The recognition of metallic money created opportunities for its universal recognition over large areas;
4) divisibility. Precious metals can be divided in any proportions that are convenient for them to perform the exchange function. Many commodity moneys do not have this advantage. For example, it is impossible to divide a live sheep if it is used as commodity money;
5) rarity. If some items are too common and available in nature, then the effectiveness of their use as money is sharply reduced. For example, it is difficult to imagine the possibility of using sea or river sand. Gold and silver are quite rare in nature; their extraction requires a large amount of living and material labor, which makes gold an expensive commodity. The rarity of precious metals results in their important quality, How portability, those. concentration of high value in limited volume and weight. Portability, in turn, makes metal money convenient for storage and transportation (transportability );
6) The product should not have its own use value. Of course, precious metals have their own use value, which is expressed in the fact that they can be used in jewelry, dental prosthetics, covering temple domes, etc. However, such industrial and household uses of gold and silver (especially gold) are extremely limited. This makes it easier to use precious metals as money. Otherwise, demand from industry and other sectors could seriously affect the supply of metal as money and lead to serious disturbances in monetary metal circulation. Wheat, unlike precious metals, has a very great importance as a consumer good, and in the event of a crop failure and famine, such commodity money would literally be eaten by people.

Full-value money must have a denomination (on the front side) that coincides with its market commodity value. As historical research shows, even during the heyday of full-fledged money, the so-called representatives of full-fledged money. The denomination of the latter was higher than the value of the metal contained in them. Such coins (bilon, or change) were unlimitedly exchanged for full-fledged coins at a fixed rate. However, in turbulent times (wars, famines, revolutions and popular unrest), such exchanges ceased (full-fledged money went abroad and (or) to treasures) or was carried out at a rate significantly different from the fixed (maternity) rate.

For a long historical period, two precious metals - gold and silver - were simultaneously used as money. This monetary system was called bimetallism, those. gold and silver coins circulated simultaneously. The state legally established the exchange ratio between gold and silver. Changes in the production costs of two precious metals, for example due to the discovery of new deposits, led to a situation where the market value of one of them was higher than the market value of the other. In this case, people preferred not to use as money the metal that was legally valued below its market value. Accordingly, they tried to use in calculations whichever of the two metals was legally valued above its market value. Therefore, the bimetallism system was very inconvenient for economic practice.

There are cases in history when the role of the universal equivalent was exclusively fulfilled by silver. This monetary system was called silver monometallism. In Russia it existed in 1843–1852, in Holland – in 1847–1875. Nevertheless, the global trend of the 19th century. the role of the universal equivalent was assigned to gold and the formation of a system of gold monometallism.

To give coins hardness during minting, impurities were added to pure metal (gold or silver), i.e. other metals such as copper. Therefore, the content of pure noble metal in a coin was determined not only by weight, but also by fineness. An admixture of other metals is called ligature.

On early stages development of a monetary system based on precious metals, free coinage was carried out. With such an organization of minting, every resident of the country could deliver precious metal to the state mint in the form of ingots, jewelry or utensils for minting coins.

During the circulation process, coins passed from hand to hand and gradually wore out - they lost some of their weight. Therefore, states set a limit permissible deviation the actual weight of the coin from the legally defined standard. This deviation limit was called "remedium".

The development of the monetary system led to closed coinage, when coins were minted from state-owned precious metal. Closed coinage allowed the state to receive all income from the issue of coins. This income is called "Seigniorage". With closed minting of coins, it became possible to reduce the weight and fineness of pure noble metal in a coin and increase the proportion of alloy. At the same time, the denomination of the coins was preserved. This practice was called "damage to coins" It made it possible to sharply increase state revenues. But the very possibility of such a practice was based on the fact that money that did not have its own value could be used in monetary circulation. This was predetermined by people's knowledge of the proportions of exchange between goods.

Appearance in the 19th century. systems gold monometallism led to the establishment of the gold content of monetary units - gold parity. This means equating a monetary unit (ruble, dollar, pound) to a certain weight of gold. In Great Britain, the gold parity of the monetary unit was established in 1816, in the USA - in 1837, in Germany - in 1875, in France - in 1878, in Russia - in 1897, in Japan - in 1897 G.

In 1867, at the Paris Monetary Conference, gold was assigned the function of world money. In practice, gold was rarely sent from country to country during settlements. This was associated with significant costs for such transportation. In business practice, international payments in the 19th century. carried out using bills of exchange (drafts). Importers purchased bills of exchange received by their country's exporters for settlement purposes and forwarded them to their creditors. Gold was used only to balance the balance of international payments of a particular country.

In the 18th century the mining of precious metals provided the world's needs for a sufficient amount of monetary material. However, against this background, fluctuations in the volume of money in circulation appeared. They were a consequence of the uneven movement of precious metals between countries due to the instability of foreign trade.

WITH late XIX V. the need for gold as a monetary material sharply outpaced the rate of its production. In this regard, in the economic literature of that period, the question of the inevitability of the transition to money that was not exchangeable for gold was discussed.

Therefore, the system of gold monometallism existed for a relatively short period of time. In the national economies of European countries, the circulation of gold coins ceased with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, in the United States - in 1933.

In the 1920s in some countries, economic agents retained the opportunity to exchange large sums for gold bullion paper money. But later this practice was abolished.

In 1971, gold actually lost its role as a monetary commodity in the sphere of international economic relations. Demonetization of the precious metal took place. Gold has ceased to serve as money. But it is still kept in the central banks of states as an important reserve.

Bill of exchange and gold circulation. For the emergence of paper money that could not be exchanged for gold, two factors were of great importance: the “damage of coins” at state mints and the development of bill circulation. “Damage of coins” showed that the role of full-fledged money can be performed by inferior ones if the state accepts them for payment of taxes. Bill circulation demonstrated that paper money can be used as a means of payment.

Bill of exchange- a document drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the law, containing the promissory note of the drawer and giving the holder of the bill the right, after the expiration of the established period, to demand from the drawer payment of the amount of money specified in it.

A bill of exchange can be simple or transferable (draft). A bill of exchange has the property of negotiability, i.e. it can be passed from hand to hand. Negotiability is ensured by a special endorsement - endorsement (from the English. endorsement – confirmation, approval). Bills of exchange, due to the convenience of their use for making payments, were able to replace to a certain extent in the 17th–18th centuries. cash in settlements for wholesale commercial transactions. But bills of exchange were circulated only among a limited number of merchants who trusted the solvency (solvency) of the drawers and endorsers.

From the end of the 17th century. Commercial banks began issuing securities with the properties of a bill of exchange. This security was called a banknote (from the English. bank note - bank note).

Banknote- a bill of exchange for the bank that issued it. The issue of banknotes meant the appearance of credit money. Banknote circulation made it possible to overcome the boundaries of bill circulation. Banks issued banknotes through commercial bill discounting operations. The essence of these operations is that a commercial bank purchases a bill before its maturity, paying the holder the amount of the bill, reduced by the amount of the bank's future income from such an operation. Upon maturity, the bank will receive from the drawer the entire amount specified in the bill. The amount of bank income expressed as a percentage is called accounting interest.

The first European banknotes, as historians believe, were issued by the Bank of Sweden in 1661; it is believed that this was an exclusively private issue. In 1694, the newly created Bank of England also issued banknotes, and the issue was sanctioned by the royal authority. During the 18th–19th centuries. there was a gradual replacement of the issue of banknotes by numerous private banks with the issue of central banks (although the latter predominantly also had the status of private institutions, but at the same time they were endowed with state power special rights in organizing the issue and circulation of banknotes and metal money). Gradually, full-fledged money in the form of banknotes became less valuable due to the fact that the authorities began to allow central banks carry out part of the banknote issue without covering it with a reserve of metal.

IN early XIX c., when England was just moving to the gold standard, heated discussions took place in this country over whether the banknote issue should be completely covered by gold reserves or not. At this time, two camps (two schools) were identified - the banking school and the money school. Most well-known representatives the first of them were Thomas Tooke and John Fullarton, and they relied on the authority and ideas of Adam Smith. The second of these schools is primarily represented by David Ricardo.

Main postulate banking school – satisfaction of society's needs for means of payment is carried out through banknote issue credit institutions(banks); banknotes are backed primarily not by gold, but by bills of exchange of commodity producers, so full coverage of the banknote issue with metal is not required; The volume of banknote issue is regulated automatically, and is not determined by the whim of banks.

According to representatives money school, the banknote issue should be completely covered by the bank's metal reserves, and it was proposed to use gold as the metal (i.e., at the same time, the idea of a gold standard was defended).

Ultimately, in England (in the 40s of the 19th century), and later in other countries, legislation was introduced emission right– the right of central banks to issue a certain number of banknotes without a metal coating (and without additional permission from the legislature). Throughout the 19th–20th centuries. emission law in many countries Western Europe and the United States has more than once been revised downward to reduce the percentage of banknote issue coverage with metal reserves. At the same time, in some countries, after the introduction of the gold standard until the First World War, in fact, the banknote issue in some years was covered by more than 100% of the gold reserve (England, Russia).

However, given the widely used practice of damaging coins by mixing various impurities into precious metals (for example, copper, lead, etc.), coin owners often had to resort to special techniques to determine the quality of metal money.

Rulers in the era of full-fledged money established their monopoly on the minting of inferior coins ( coin regalia). The profit from the monopoly issue (issue) of metallic money was called seigniorage, or share premium. As coinage spread, governments (monarchs, princes) discovered that the exclusive right to coinage was not only an attractive source of income, but also provided them with power. In this regard, the rulers took great care to ensure that the space in which the coins minted by them circulated was expanded as much as possible and that the boundaries of these spaces were reliably protected from the “invasion” of foreign coins. Coin regalia and national metal money became an important factor in strengthening the sovereignty of individual territories (principalities, kingdoms, etc.).

The history of the development of money is the history of the development of commodity exchange. As social production develops, the forms and types of money change. In the process of its evolution, money took various shapes depending on one or another level of development of commodity relations.

At certain stages historical development its own form of money prevailed, the one most consistent with the economic mechanism.

Historically, there were two forms of money: full-fledged and inferior.

The first form of money is full-fledged money. Full-fledged money had a commodity nature and had its own internal value. Full-fledged money included metal money: bars and coins made of silver and gold. The peculiarity of full-fledged money was that its face value basically corresponded to the value of the metal it contained. It was the presence of intrinsic value in metallic money that ensured its universal acceptance.

The embryonic form of full-fledged money (the goods that were in greatest demand on the local market due to their special usefulness: grain, livestock, furs, salt, ivory, shells, etc.) appeared in a subsistence economy. The separation of crafts from agriculture leads to the fact that metals, initially in the form of ingots (rods, wires, plates of a certain weight), begin to be used as money. In the X111th century. BC e. In circulation there are ingots with a stamp indicating their purity and weight.

Subsequently, there was a transition to minting coins from precious metals (silver and gold). The first metal coins appeared around the 11th century. BC e. in the Mediterranean states of Lydia and Aegina.

The purchasing power of full-fledged money (their ability to be exchanged for a certain amount of goods and services) depended on the value of the metal it contained. The more a gold (silver) coin weighed, the higher its purchasing power. As the value of gold changed, the purchasing power of gold money also changed.

The highest form of full-fledged money was gold. Since gold coins had their own intrinsic value, they functioned as a means of creating treasures. Gold treasures acted as an automatic spontaneous regulator of monetary circulation: when the needs of commodity circulation for money decreased, the coins that became surplus went out of circulation into the treasure, and when they increased, the coins came into circulation from the treasures. Therefore, the amount of gold money in circulation always corresponded to the need for trade in money.

The history of the development of full-fledged money and the reasons for the transition to inferior money. Full money

More on topic 4. Types of money: good and bad money:

More on topic 2.3. Full-fledged money and its forms:

Commodity money

Full money