Everything You Need To Know About Money #1

We talk about money all the time. Some of us find it evil, while others chase it for their happiness and satisfaction. Before coming to any conclusion, we will have to understand how did money come in to existence. I will start from the very basics. And in the subsequent posts, I will talk about money in more detail. First of all, let’s figure out its origin through the narrative below.

The Origin of Money:

Once upon a time there lived Jack and Jill in a permanent abode in rural settings. They loved each other as an ideal couple should – spending more time in making love, than doing anything else. That’s probably because they were the only people who they thought existed. For them, this was the world. They haven’t seen anyone else and believed that the world existed in that abode.

The life was hard at times, as they were far away from the comforts and the luxuries that we relish today. However they had mastered the art of survival and did enough work to make their living. They did their chores and while doing so they assisted each other in various tasks. When one felt lazy, or was not feeling well, the other worked harder and made things easier. Time passed and they had children and they they had many. It was due to the lack of other activities available to them. They had stopped counting after 10. That was all they could count with their fingers. Few years later they had grandchildren. The family had started to live in separate houses now, but still they were quite close to each other eternally.

Jack was old now. He wanted his future generations to do the Karma and not get anything without working. He called his posterity and asked them to follow his advice. He asked them to exchange favors whenever one individual helped the other. For example, if one washed the utensils of others, the others would have to return the favor by doing some work for that person. They all agreed. Soon, they made more modifications in this rule as per their convenience. They started exchanging gifts (like vegetables, fruits, clothes) as a return of favor. Also, they divided the work on the basis of their expertise. Those who were good at cooking did only cooking and nothing else. Others who were good at different tasks did the rest of things for them. Similarly the other workers emerged.

The inconvenience grew with growing population as the exchange of gifts was causing disputes. People wanted all kind of pleasures through different services. Also the society had grown and had a number of people. But intelligence was not rare in their community. The solution was invented soon. They devised a unit – made of stones by cutting it in a specific shape and made it a symbol of exchange. For example – if one possessed that stone then he/she could get vegetables, fruits, cooking service etc by giving it to the other person.

You know what that stone was…

Money.

To be continued…