As one of the four ancient countries in the world, China has used currency very early, as early as 4,000 years ago in the Xia And Shang Dynasties, there has been a circulation of money. At that time, the currency used by the whole country was a kind of "shell coin" made of shells, and people used ropes to connect some shells together, and then used them as money for material exchange, which was also the earliest prototype of money.
According to the records in the "Chronicle of History", we know that in ancient times, this "shell coin" was used as a primitive currency, which was also confirmed in many cultural monuments. But here many people will ask: this currency is very good for counterfeiting, as long as you go to the beach to pick up shells, and then string these shells together can be used as currency directly? Why don't people by the sea go directly to collect shells to make money and get rich?
In fact, the reason here is very simple, because the shell is not only the shell so simple, there are many imitation shells, such as jade shells, ancient shells, and later, there are shells made of bronze materials, and this is also the prototype of "copper money", so no matter what type of shell, the price is very cheap, not the ordinary shells of the seaside, if there are ordinary people who want to imitate, then it will cost a lot of production costs, and it will cost more than the currency itself.
The second reason is that not every kind of shell can be used as currency, and money is also divided into size, those very rare shells are still relatively valuable, just like that kind of tabby shell, it is not somewhere to pick up, and that kind of ring shell can only be found in a fixed sea, so the price is also very expensive, in fact, we think about it carefully and know that if you can really use a shell as a coin, then the fisherman by the sea will not become a rich man. Then there is no need to fish again.