"See the gentleman, tin I am a hundred friends" - "Shijing, Xiaoya Jingjing"
In Chinese characters, such as money, loan, poverty, capital, relief, gift, bribery, bribe... Words related to money, in the structure of the word, will generally contain a shell, which is related to the earliest currency "shell". There were already currencies 4,000 years ago, and the earliest currency was the "natural sea shell". By the time of the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, shells were still an important exchange item.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the use rate of round money began to increase, and then later there was gold, baht money, silver and so on. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang destroyed 6 kingdoms successively, becoming the only emperor in the world, and there was a situation of great unification, the main currency became gold, followed by copper coins, and shells and pearls and jade were no longer currencies, and could only be used as an ornament.
In fact, after gold, copper coins, and jiaozi became the main common currency, shell currency did not really become extinct, and even during the Qing Dynasty, some people still used shells as currency.
So why did humans choose a shell as a universal currency in the first place, rather than other items? This must first be understood from the cultural meaning of shells, shell money appears in matriarchal societies. The structure of the shell is a hard shell that protects the soft internal structure, which actually symbolizes reproduction, and in the era of matriarchal society, the shell is a kind of totem. On the pottery excavated from the Yangshao culture and the Majiayao culture in China, we can all see the pattern of the shell.
Looking at home and abroad, it is not difficult to find that not only Chinese once worshipped shells, but in the primitive tribes of Africa, the Indians also regarded shells as a symbol of wealth, and later, with the change of the times, after having other currencies, they chose to use shells as their headdresses, or ornaments on their bodies. The shell itself is a kind of item with various patterns and luster, and it is also hard and durable.
Then some people will think, since shells were currency in ancient times, why not pick up a little more currency, let yourself become a rich man, or everyone to pick it up, so it would be naïve to think so. Not all students are bullies, and not all birds can be called phoenixes... Therefore, not all shells can become currency.
If the shell wants to become currency, it must be processed and become a "friend", and only the currency that becomes a friend can circulate in the market, otherwise even the most beautiful shell can only be an ornament. Becoming friends is not a simple matter, these friends are generally in the hands of powerful people, like the blood diamonds of Africa.
Shells are generally only found by the sea, there are no shells to see in the inland areas, and in ancient times, traffic was blocked, and many places were poor and bad, and those people could only live a self-sufficient life, or go to the market and sell their hunting or grown food in exchange for shells. They don't know where to go to find shells, and few will choose to give up their land and wade through mountains and rivers to go out of town.
On the other hand, even if residents live close to the sea, they cannot pick up shells casually. In every territory, there are powerful people, who are managers, who will organize migrant workers to go down to the sea to collect shells and then process them. Even if someone fishes for the shell themselves, they can't turn the shell into currency.
If the shell wants to become currency, it also needs to be processed and polished, and the most important thing is to perforate these shells, the shell is hard shell, in fact, it is so easy to perforate, rather than expending energy to perforate a shell, it is better to do some work to feed yourself. Perforation is not a problem for those who are powerful.
In the Shang Dynasty era, "peng" is the basic unit of shell coins, 5 shells are strung together into a string, and two strings are a friend. And later in the shell coin appeared bone shells, stone shells, Tao shells, jade shells... Etc., that is, using bones, stones, ceramics, jade and other substances to make shell shapes, rather than using seaside shells, but what these shells are really difficult to do is that they need to be polished and punched, and even on these shells, they have to undergo special treatment to become real shells.
In the Western Han Dynasty's "History" and "Salt and Iron Theory", there are a large number of records about shell coins, and in the ancient tombs of the Xia Dynasty excavated in 1975, natural sea shells, bone shells, and jade shells were also found, a total of 12 pieces. With the development of the times. There are also more and more shell coins that appear later, and today, they can get rid of paper money and gold and silver and pay directly with mobile phones.