In the history of financial development 500-600 years ago, due to the limitation of transportation and production technology, human financial and trade activities usually could not break through national boundaries. However, this situation changed rapidly in less than a hundred years. The geographical discovery at the end of 15 and the industrial revolution in 18 greatly shortened the original space-time distance between people. Transnational trade, debt settlement, capital transfer and other activities not only interpreted the initial international financial phenomenon, but also included the ups and downs of international financial disputes and coordination from the beginning. Since then, with the expansion of the division of labor network in human society and the rapid development of science and technology, international financial cooperation has been at a low level for a long time, but the overall process has been accelerating. Especially in the 20th century, human society experienced two world wars and 1929- 1933 economic crisis. In order to survive and develop, different sovereign countries have launched unprecedented large-scale coordination and cooperation in financial history in order to rebuild the international monetary and financial order. The Genoa World Economic and Financial Conference in April 1922, the Three Kingdoms Gold Agreement in June 1936, the Bretton Woods Agreement in July 1944, and the subsequent establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are all typical examples. What is more striking is that since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the international monetary and financial order has entered an era of "no system". The exchange rates of major international currencies such as the US dollar often fluctuate greatly. The convenient electronic trading system makes large-scale international hot money look like a ghost, wandering around the world. The contagion effect between financial markets in different countries is becoming more and more obvious. The frequency and destructiveness of the financial crisis have risen sharply, and the conflict of interests between developed and developing countries in the financial field has become more and more obvious ... These problems constitute the distinctive features of the current international financial field, and also determine the present and future. It is worth mentioning that the appearance of the European Central Bank and the single currency euro in the 1990s marked that human society pushed international financial cooperation to a new stage in the 20th century.

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International Finance News (065438+2002 1 6th edition on October 4th) The history of currency development is1. There are many theories about the origin of money. Among them, China's ancient theory of the origin of money mainly includes the theory of the first king making money and the theory of the origin of exchange, while the western theory of the origin of money mainly includes the theory of invention, the theory of convenient exchange and the theory of wealth preservation, but these theories can not explain the origin of money scientifically and completely. Marx scientifically expounded the objective inevitability of currency production with the theory of labor value. Marx believes that money is the inevitable product of the development of commodity production and commodity exchange, the inevitable product of the development of internal contradictions in commodity economy and the inevitable product of the development of value forms.

2. Monetary materials refer to materials or articles used as money, which are usually of high value, easy to divide, easy to preserve and easy to carry. Since the emergence of money, many different items have formed different forms of money as monetary materials. Generally speaking, the evolution of monetary form has experienced the development process from physical currency-metal currency-paper money-deposit currency-electronic currency. Physical currency is the currency form adopted in the early days of currency, and metal currency has been used for a long time in many countries. Paper money, deposit currency and electronic currency are all modern currency forms.

3. Physical money is a form of money that takes things that exist in nature or things that people produce as monetary materials. There are many kinds of physical currency in Chinese and foreign history. In the history of China, the physical currencies with great influence include currency, Bo Gu, etc. However, many physical currencies have different forms, which are difficult to separate and preserve, inconvenient to carry and unstable in value, and are not ideal trading media.

4. Metal currency is a currency with copper, silver, gold and other metals as monetary materials, among which precious metal gold as monetary material is the heyday in the history of metal currency development. There are two forms of metal currency: one is weighing currency, and the other is coinage. Metal currency has the advantages of stable value, easy division and easy preservation. The main limitation of metal currency is that it is inconvenient to carry. The quantity of metal currency is limited by the amount of metal storage and mining, so it cannot flexibly meet the needs of economic development for trading media.

5. There are three kinds of paper money: one is the symbol of paper money issued by the state, the other is the exchange certificate issued by businessmen, and the third is the bank note, the credit currency of paper money issued by banks. At present, most of the cash used in circulation in various countries is dishonorable bank notes issued by the central bank authorized by the state, also known as legal tender or cash. It is a pure credit currency, and there is no gold or silver as issuance guarantee.

6. Deposit currency is a bank deposit that can play a monetary role. It mainly refers to demand deposits that can be transferred and settled by issuing checks. Compared with cash, deposit currency payment has the advantages of quickness, safety and convenience. In the modern developed commodity economy, most transaction payments are made in deposit currency.

7. Electronic money is the money paid through the electronic network. Electronic money can replace cash and checks for payment, which has an important impact on the traditional currency issuance and circulation.