The evolution of currency has gone through several stages such as "physical currency - metal currency - paper money - electronic currency". The evolution of ancient Chinese currency. China is one of the earliest countries in the world to use currency, with a history of using currency as long as five thousand years.

In the process of its formation and development, ancient Chinese currency has experienced five major evolutions: 1. The evolution of natural currency into artificial currency.

Shells are the earliest currency in my country. Shells were used as currency in the Shang Dynasty.

In Chinese characters, most of the words related to value start from "贝".

With the development of commodity exchange, the demand for currency is increasing, and seashells can no longer meet people's needs. People in the Shang Dynasty began to use copper to imitate seashells.

The emergence of copper coins was a major evolution from natural currency to artificial currency in the history of ancient Chinese currency.

With the extensive use of artificial coins, natural currency such as seashells has slowly withdrawn from China's currency stage.

2. The evolution from complex shapes to unified shapes.

From the appearance of copper coins in the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States period, our country's currency has many shapes.

During the Warring States Period, not only each country minted its own currency, but also each region within a vassal country minted its own currency.

The shovel coins of Zhao State, the knife coins of Qi State, the round square hole coins of Qin State, and the ant-nosed coins of Chu State are more famous.

After Qin unified China, Qin Shihuang promulgated China's earliest currency law in 210 BC, "using Qin coins to unify the world's coins", which stipulated that Qin's half-liang coins with round square holes should be used throughout the country.

The unification of currency ended the chaos of ancient Chinese currency with different shapes and weights. It was a major evolution in the history of ancient Chinese currency from a complex shape to a standardized shape.

The round square hole shape established by Qin Banliang Coin was continued until the early Republic of China.

3. The evolution from local coinage to central coinage.

In the early Han Dynasty, the prefectures and states were allowed to mint money freely. According to the "Hanshu Shihuo Zhi", during the reign of Emperor Wen, "the order to eliminate theft and mint money was issued, and the people were allowed to mint it." Therefore, "theft of mints started like clouds."

This not only caused currency chaos, but also allowed wealthy merchants to control the power of minting, making them richer than the emperor.

In 113 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took back the minting rights of the counties and counties, and the central government unified the minting of five baht coins. The five baht coins became the only legal currency at that time.

From then on, it was determined that the central government would have unified management of coin casting and issuance. This was a major evolution in the history of ancient Chinese currency from local coinage to central coinage.

Since then, the mintage of all dynasties has been directly managed by the central government.

The return of minting power to the central government played an important role in stabilizing the political situation and economic development of each dynasty.

4. The evolution from document weight to Tongbao and Yuanbao.

Coins minted since the Qin and Han Dynasties usually clearly indicate the weight of the money in the money inscriptions, such as "half a tael", "five baht", etc. (twenty-four baht is one tael).

In the fourth year of Wude (621), Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan was determined to reform the currency system, abolish the ancient coins of different weights, and use the meaning of "opening up a new era" to uniformly cast "Kaiyuan Tongbao" coins.

"Kaiyuan Tongbao" is contrary to the old system of Qin and Han Dynasties. The weight of money is not written on the money. It is the evolution of ancient Chinese currency from written weight to Tongbao and Yuanbao.

"Kaiyuan Tongbao" money is the earliest Tongbao money in my country.

Since then, our country's copper coins no longer use money to mark the weight, but are commensurate with Tongbao and Yuanbao. This has been used until the "Republic of China Tongbao" after the Revolution of 1911.

5. The evolution of metal currency to paper money "Jiaozi".

During the Northern Song Dynasty, with the development of exchange, currency circulation increased. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, 800,000 coins were minted annually, and gradually increased thereafter.

Due to the shortage of copper materials for coining coins, the government made large quantities of iron coins in some areas to make up for the shortage.

According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", the iron coins cast in Sichuan at that time always weighed twenty-five pounds and eight taels.

To buy a piece of silk fabric in Sichuan, you have to pay 130 kilograms of iron money.

Iron money was so cumbersome and inconvenient that the paper currency "Jiaozi" printed in the Northern Song Dynasty came into being in Sichuan.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, with the permission of the government, it was jointly operated by 16 wealthy households in Chengdu.

The emergence of "Jiaozi" is an important evolution from metal currency to paper currency in the history of ancient Chinese currency.

"Jiaozi" is not only the earliest banknote in my country, but also the earliest banknote in the world.

The evolution history of gold as currency Gold has assumed the function of currency around the world and has gone through a long historical evolution process.

To this day, it remains an indispensable and important part of the financial world.

At the end of primitive society, gold and silver firmly served as general equivalents.

China is one of the first countries in the world to mint gold coins. With historical development, weighing currency transitioned to metal coins, and the original value and face value of gold and silver coins were gradually separated.

In 1816, the United Kingdom promulgated the Gold Standard Act. The gold standard era began, and gold reached its peak as currency.

It was not until the 1930s that Western capitalism experienced an economic crisis, countries announced their abandonment of the gold standard, and gold coins gradually withdrew from circulation.

On January 8, 1976, the International Monetary Fund reached the "Jamaica Agreement", which stipulated that gold would no longer be used as a currency valuation standard, and gold embarked on the process of demonetization.

Since the 1970s, the gold marketization process has gradually accelerated around the world.

Since 1983, the wave of financial liberalization has promoted the further opening of the international gold market, and the gold market has become more closely connected with other financial markets.