Level 4 Reading 6A

Reading 6A

阅读6A

HOW MONEY MADE US MODERN About 9,500 years ago, ancient accountants in Sumer invented a way to keep track of farmers' crops and livestock. They began using small pieces of baked clay, almost like the tokens used in board games today. One piece might signify a measure of grain, while another with a different shape might represent a farm animal or a jar of olive oil. Those little ceramic shapes might not seem to have much in common with today's $100 bill— or with the credit cards and online transactions that are rapidly taking the place of cash— but the roots of our modern methods of payment lie in those Sumerian tokens. Such early accounting tools evolved into a system of finance and into money itself: a symbolic representation of value that can be transferred from one person to another as payment for goods or services. The Rise of Gold Since ancient times, humans have used items to represent value—from stones to animal skins, to whale teeth. In the ancient world, people often relied upon symbols that had tangible value in their own right. The ancient Chinese made payments with cowrie shells, which were prized for their beauty as materials for jewelry. As Glyn Davies notes in his book A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day, cowrie shells are durable, easily cleaned and counted, and defy imitation or counterfeiting. But eventually there arose a new, universal currency: gold. The gleaming metal could be combined with other metals at high temperatures to create alloys, and was easy to melt and hammer into shapes. It became the raw material for the first coins, created in Lydia (present-day Turkey) around 2,700 years ago. Lydian coins didn't look much like today's coinage. They were irregular in shape and size and didn't have values inscribed on them; instead, they used a stamped image to indicate their weight and value. The result, explains financial author Kabir Sehgal, was an economic system in which "you knew the value of what you had, and what you could buy with it." Unlike modern money, ancient coins were what economists call full-bodied or commodity money: Their value was fixed by the metal in them.

金钱如何使我们变得现代 大约9500年前， 苏美尔的古代会计师发明了一种跟踪农民农作物和牲畜的方法。 他们开始使用小块的烤粘土，几乎就像今天棋盘游戏中使用的代币一样。 一块可能代表一粒谷物， 而另一个形状不同的可能代表农场动物或一罐橄榄油。 那些小小的陶瓷形状似乎与今天的100美元钞票没有太多共同之处-- 或者，信用卡和在线交易正在迅速取代现金-- 但我们现代支付方式的根源在于这些苏美尔代币。 这些早期的会计工具演变成了一个金融体系和货币本身： 价值的象征性表示 可以作为商品或服务的付款从一个人转移到另一个人。 黄金的崛起 自古以来，人类就用物品来代表价值——从石头到动物皮，再到鲸鱼牙齿。 在古代，人们往往依赖于本身具有有形价值的符号。 古代中国人用贝壳付款， 它们因其美丽而作为珠宝材料而受到珍视。 正如格林·戴维斯在他的《从古至今的货币史》一书中所指出的那样， 贝壳经久耐用，易于清洁和计数，不易模仿或伪造。 但最终出现了一种新的通用货币：黄金。 闪闪发光的金属可以在高温下与其他金属结合形成合金， 并且易于熔化和锤击成型。 它成为2700年前在吕底亚（今土耳其）创造的第一枚硬币的原材料。 吕底亚硬币看起来和今天的硬币不太一样。 它们的形状和大小不规则，上面没有刻字； 相反，他们使用盖章的图像来指示他们的重量和价值。 金融作家卡比尔·塞加尔解释说，结果是一个经济体系 “你知道你所拥有的东西的价值，以及你可以用它买到什么。” 与现代货币不同，古代硬币是经济学家所说的醇厚货币或商品货币： 它们的价值是由里面的金属决定的。

The Birth of Trade Money's convenience made it easier for ancient merchants to develop large-scale trade networks, in which spices and grain could be bought and sold across distances of thousands of kilometers. This led to the first foreign exchanges: In the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth, banks were set up where foreign traders could exchange their own coins for Corinthian ones. In the centuries that followed, trade routes forged more cultural connections between nations and regions. Besides exchanging money and goods, traders also spread religious beliefs, knowledge, and new inventions, creating connections among far-flung cultures. The dangers of moving money and goods over distances— whether from storms at sea or bandits and pirates—led humans to develop increasingly complex economic organizations. In the 1600s, investors gathering in London coffeehouses began to underwrite traders and colonists heading to the New World, financing their voyages in exchange for a share of the crops or goods they brought back. Investors tried to reduce their risk by buying shares of multiple ventures. It was the start of a global economy in which vast quantities of products and money began to flow across borders in search of profit. Notes and Bills By the 1700s, the global economy had grown so much that it was inconvenient to transport and store large quantities of coins. Several societies therefore shifted toward paper currency. The earliest paper bills were literally receipts that gave the bearer ownership of gold or silver coins that could be collected upon demand. But as Lloyd Thomas explains in his book Money, Banking and Financial Markets, bankers eventually realized that many people simply used their notes rather than redeeming them for gold. It meant that the bankers didn't actually need to have enough gold on hand to cover all the notes they issued. That revelation, Thomas says, eventually led to the concept of fiat money, which governments issue today. In contrast to commodity money, today's money has value essentially because a government says that it does. Its purchasing power remains relatively stable because the government controls the supply. That's why a U.S.$100 bill is worth $100, even though it only contains a few cents worth of raw materials. It's a system with an important advantage, in that human judgment— rather than how much gold has been dug out of the ground—determines the amount of money in circulation. On the other hand, this can become a disadvantage. If a government decides to issue too much money, it can trigger an inflationary spiral that raises the price of goods and services. Toward Virtual Money By the 20th century, new methods of payment had begun to emerge as alternatives to cash. In the 1920s, oil companies and hotel chains began to issue credit cards: These enabled customers to make purchases and pay what they owed later. In 1950, Diners Club International issued the first universal credit card, which could be used to purchase things at a variety of places. Using plastic to make purchases eventually proved more convenient than bills, coins, or even checks. In 2009, yet another high-tech successor to money emerged: Bitcoin. Bitcoins are a sort of unofficial virtual Internet currency. They aren't issued or even controlled by governments, and they exist only in the cloud or on a person's computer. Parag Khanna, a financial policy expert, explains: "The real future is technology as money. That's what Bitcoin is about." From the clay tokens of Sumer to today's virtual currencies, the evolution of money has helped drive the development of civilization. Money makes it easier not only to buy and sell goods, but also to connect with the world, enabling traders to roam across continents, and investors to amass wealth. It is a type of language that we all speak. From the humblest shop clerk to the wealthiest Wall Street financier, money exerts a powerful influence upon us all.

贸易的诞生 金钱的便利性使古代商人更容易发展大规模的贸易网络， 在这里，香料和谷物可以在数千公里的距离内买卖。 这导致了第一次对外交流： 在古希腊城邦科林斯， 银行成立了，外国商人可以在那里把自己的硬币兑换成科林斯硬币。 在随后的几个世纪里，贸易路线在国家和地区之间建立了更多的文化联系。 除了交换金钱和货物， 商人还传播宗教信仰、知识和新发明，在遥远的文化之间建立联系。 远距离转移资金和货物的危险-- 无论是海上风暴还是土匪和海盗，都导致人类发展出越来越复杂的经济组织。 17世纪，聚集在伦敦咖啡馆的投资者开始为前往新大陆的商人和殖民者提供担保， 为他们的航行提供资金，以换取他们带回的农作物或货物的一部分。 投资者试图通过购买多家企业的股票来降低风险。 这是全球经济的开端，其中大量的产品和资金 开始跨境流动以寻求利润。 票据和账单 到18世纪，全球经济已经增长了很多 运输和储存大量硬币很不方便。 因此，一些社会转向了纸币。 最早的纸币实际上是收据，赋予持有者金币或银币的所有权 可以根据需要收集。 但正如劳埃德·托马斯在他的《货币、银行和金融市场》一书中所解释的那样， 银行家们最终意识到，许多人只是用他们的纸币，而不是用它们兑换黄金。 这意味着银行家们实际上不需要手头有足够的黄金来支付他们发行的所有票据。 托马斯说，这一发现最终导致了政府今天发行的法定货币的概念。 与商品货币相反， 今天的货币之所以有价值，本质上是因为政府说它有价值。 由于政府控制供应，其购买力保持相对稳定。 这就是为什么一张100美元的钞票值100美元， 尽管它只含有价值几美分的原材料。 这是一个具有重要优势的系统，在人类判断方面-- 而不是从地下挖出了多少黄金，决定了流通中的货币数量。 另一方面，这可能会成为一个缺点。 如果政府决定发行过多的货币， 它可能引发通货膨胀螺旋式上升，从而提高商品和服务的价格。 迈向虚拟货币 到20世纪，新的支付方式开始作为现金的替代品出现。 20世纪20年代，石油公司和连锁酒店开始发行信用卡： 这些使客户能够进行购买并在以后支付欠款。 1950年，Diners Club International发行了第一张通用信用卡， 它可以用来在各种地方购买东西。 使用塑料购物最终被证明比纸币、硬币甚至支票更方便。 2009年，又出现了另一种货币的高科技继承者：比特币。 比特币是一种非官方的虚拟互联网货币。 它们不是由政府发布甚至控制的，它们只存在于云端或个人电脑上。 金融政策专家Parag Khanna解释说： “真正的未来是技术即货币。这就是比特币的意义所在。” 从Sumer的粘土代币到今天的虚拟货币， 货币的演变有助于推动文明的发展。 金钱不仅使买卖商品更容易， 而且与世界相连，使交易员能够在各大洲漫游，投资者能够积累财富。 这是一种我们都会说的语言。 从最卑微的店员到最富有的华尔街金融家，金钱对我们所有人都有强大的影响。

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