As we all know, the initial transaction form was barter, and after the development of commodity economy, the equivalent, namely currency, gradually appeared. But what is equivalent is indeed the result of long-term screening. At first, sheep and shells were used as equivalents. However, the disadvantages of this equivalent are obvious. With the discovery and use of metal, people gradually find that this thing has many advantages when used as an equivalent. Convenient storage, good durability, not easy to wear, and scarcity.
With the discovery of metal, almost all civilizations in the world began to slowly transition to metal currency. However, it is not a sudden transition to gold and silver, but a process of development. As far as China is concerned, although gold appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, its quantity is extremely scarce and its value is too high, which is not enough to become the equivalent of the whole economic system, but only a scarce resource held by the nobility.
The Shang dynasty has entered the bronze age, and copper shells with copper as the currency have appeared. Gold appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was used as currency. Only under some special circumstances, the basis of money circulating in the whole society is copper. The "hundred rewards" and "huge sum" recorded in ancient books refer to copper, not gold.
Even to a certain extent, gold circulation is prohibited. Copper coins of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qin Banliang and Hanwu, as well as copper coins of later generations, are the main bodies of social money. Therefore, in the past, the description of the rich was called "rich" and, like the current "billionaires", was measured in conventional money. Since the Song Dynasty, due to the high development of commodity economy and the sharp increase of transaction frequency, metal currency is inconvenient to carry, and paper money has appeared. It was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that Europe plundered a large amount of gold and silver from North America and Africa. Through international trade, the gold and silver plundered by Europe began to flow into China in large quantities, and the use of silver became more and more common.
Therefore, as a common currency, gold and silver have been circulating since15th century. Prior to this, some countries and regions also used iron and aluminum as scarce equivalents. If medieval aluminum tableware is excavated in Europe, don't think it was buried with the poor. At that time, it was a luxury that only the top aristocrats could use.
At present, although gold is still precious and an important strategic reserve resource, the scope of folk application is not what it used to be, and countless wonderful gold products have appeared, which was unimaginable in the past.
Rare things are precious, and human nature is precious.
Beauty contests in the world are precious and happy.
Gold, silver and jade are rare,
Take smart production technology as an example.
The first metal discovered and utilized by human beings was gold. Because of its stable nature, gold usually appears in the form of simple substance. Gold mainly exists in the earth's crust, which overflows during volcanic eruption and exists in rock crevices. After thousands of years of rain erosion, gold flows into streams and rivers with sand and gravel. Due to the high content of heavy metals, tiny gold sand particles gradually coagulate into blocks, forming so-called "gold nuggets".
After flash floods, these "gold nuggets" are often exposed on the beach, and their dazzling colors can easily attract the attention of primitive humans and then be discovered.
Because of its good ductility, gold may become a beautiful ornament with a little beating, and then it has the value of use and exchange. The melting point of gold is very low, more than 1000 degrees. It can be smelted and purified under original conditions, and may stimulate mining and production after the demand increases.
However, gold is rare and extremely difficult to obtain on the earth, so it naturally becomes a valuable item.
Jade is hard and dazzling, and it was a very high-quality tool material in the ancient Stone Age, with high use and decorative value. Like gold, it is extremely difficult to obtain and naturally becomes a treasure on the earth.
The content of silver in China is very small, at least before the opening of the Silk Road in Han Dynasty, it had not become the main currency in ancient China. In the past few years, more than 65,438+000 kilograms of gold and about 10 tons of copper coins have been unearthed from famous marine excavations, but silverware is rarely seen, which is proof.
The earliest metal smelted and produced in China should be copper. Copper is widely distributed in China with high content. In the process of firing pottery, ancient ancestors probably mixed clay containing copper into it. Because the melting point of copper is close to that of gold, it is possible to burn copper when firing pottery, and malachite rich in copper is bright and dazzling.
It is easy to find, so it led mankind from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.
The earliest use of gold in China can be traced back to Shang Dynasty. In the process of mining, the ancients gradually discovered the rarity of gold, so they realized that it was a rare precious metal. It is the understanding of its rarity that makes gold a very expensive metal material since ancient times. In thousands of years of historical changes, only the value of gold has been rising steadily, which also shows the wisdom of the ancients, which shows that they can realize that gold is a rare metal very early, which shows that they are very wise!
The economic value of this Tang dynasty gold pot in the picture is extremely high, except for its artistic value and cultural relics value, because it is made of rare metal gold.
Since ancient times, thousands of gold and silver have been eagerly anticipated by the world. Happy ever after, magnificent, is an extremely noble existence in people's eyes now. So how are gold, silver and jade articles loved by people, regarded as the most precious value entity and respected by people? Let's do a little interpretation.
There are three small reasons why gold, silver and jade articles are regarded as treasures.
First, it is scarce, and this kind of hidden substance needs human beings to pay a huge price to obtain. As far as ancient production capacity is concerned, this is really difficult. Even now, it is not so simple. The most important thing is that the stock is limited. Even if the mining technology is developed, the mining amount can't meet the holding amount of a large number of people on the earth now, so it is still precious.
Second, it will last forever. Gold, silver and jade are stable and eternal. Look at the jewels and treasures thousands of years ago. They are still shining and dazzling. Because of their stable texture, gold and silver are metals, but they are not easily oxidized. Thousands of years later, they still look the same Silver may not be as good as gold, so it has many advantages over other metal products. Not to mention jade, the jade pig dragon in Hongshan Culture is still complete and colorful, which has been around for five or six thousand years.
Third, gold, silver and jade all have a common advantage, that is, their luster is excellent, which is easy to attract human attention and get more attention. They are jeweled, radiant and colorful, so they can naturally be favored and loved by all people. Imagine that house full of gold bars, that mountain of silver ingots, that colorful jade, can you lightly laugh it off? I'm afraid not.
To sum up, the natural attributes and historical traditions of gold, silver and jade articles doomed their extraordinary social treatment.
The ancients used jade earlier than gold and silver vessels. In the late Paleolithic period, their ancestors used some colored stones to decorate themselves or make sacrifices. Later, they gradually found better jade for carving accessories, which was a long process. The earliest jades in real practical sense were unearthed in Chifeng and Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, and were Neolithic artifacts about 6000-7000 years ago. China was the first country to use jade. Jade culture is deeply rooted in people's hearts and has a long history. Jade belongs to stone, but it is different from stone. There is a saying that "all beautiful stones are jade". Jade is deeply loved by people because of its hard, transparent and moist characteristics and beautiful color. I think the ancients who first discovered jade should also be attracted by its characteristics! It is precisely because of its beautiful appearance and special texture that jade was discovered and valued by our ancestors. In the minds of our ancestors, jade is a spiritual thing that can communicate with heaven, so it is often used as a ritual and protective thing for sacrifice and prayer, which is very precious; Jade itself is a natural mineral that has not been smelted and purified, so the ancients developed and utilized it earlier than gold and silver.
..... The ancients refined gold and silver later than copper. Meteorite may be the earliest metal used by ancestors, which can be traced back to the late Neolithic age, and then copper was gradually refined until gold and silver. Gold nuggets and thin gold foils unearthed from Shang tombs may be the earliest gold wares. It can be seen that the ancients at that time had initially mastered the technology of metal smelting and purification. Because gold and silver houses have high oxidation resistance, they have strong ductility and toughness. Bright colors are very charming, but they are also very rare. Ancient ancestors first used gold and silver as ornaments to wear, which is a symbol of status and power, and later slowly evolved into money. .......
..... I think the ancients showed the preciousness of jade, gold and silver, and were attracted by their own characteristics and impressed by their attractive and glorious appearance! As for the extraction of gold and silver from ores, this is the wisdom crystallization of the ancients in their long-term life experience and a civilized process in the history of human development. This is not a one-time event ... My friends, this is just my personal opinion. Please forgive me if there is anything wrong. Welcome to share with us.
Because there are very few.
Things are a little expensive.
At first, human commercial communication was based on exchanging things for things, and later it developed into universal equivalents, such as shell stone tools, and later it was discovered that copper and metal became tools, which was a major progress in human history. Subsequently, rare metals such as gold and silver also appeared, because they are rare and more valuable than copper and iron.
There are also jade in the west, but the orientals like jade best.
In ancient China, the history of using gold and silver as currency was very short. As for jade, only people with status can wear it. On the one hand, there are few natural gold and silver mines in China, and the natural reserves are insufficient, so jade raw materials are not easy to obtain; Secondly, the smelting technology and processing technology of ancient gold, silver and jade articles in China are relatively backward, and the melting point of gold and silver is high, so it is rarely circulated in the market; Third, China was a highly centralized monarchy in ancient times, which was caused by imperial power. Most of the products produced don't care about the cost, and pursue gorgeous luxury. Only the royal family and nobles can enjoy these exquisite gold, silver and jade articles. Most people have never seen them at all. Third, gold, silver and jade articles are mostly used as symbols of wealth rather than actual use, so the market liquidity is very low and the price is very high!
Haha laugh ... in fact, this is an accident and an art; Now listen to me one by one.
Let's start with precious metals. Metal comes from primitive ceramic technology, and it is mainly used for food after human discovery of fire. However, the fire at that time was not easy to protect. Using mud and simple earth walls in the wild, and then baking for a long time, some people find that the earth walls are hard enough to hold things. ..... and then clay products appeared ... It has long been found that different soils have different hardness after burning ... so someone specially burned different soils.
Because iron is common, it is the first precious metal (expensive at that time). Therefore, iron was used as labor tools and "iron coins" when the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the State of Qin unified the world. Copper, which appears behind iron, has been lost for a long time because of the low hardness of the mixture of copper, gold and silver.
But history is interesting. Because "iron coins" are easy to rust and break, and people can easily make them, officials proposed to use "copper coins", and then silver appeared. However, because of its beauty, gold has always existed as an ornament in the history of China, and it was not used as currency in Rome.
In fact, no matter whether silver and gold are "expensive" today, they just feel expensive now; If humans go into space, this metal will not exist when it is easily available. Or humans return to primitive society, and today's "expensive" metals are more rubbish.
Then let's talk about jade. Jade is a primitive feature of China people, which is different from precious metals. Jade is expensive only because people think it looks good. This is why gold is valuable and jade is priceless, so this innate love for creating artistic beauty in nature has been decorated with this variety of stones since the emergence of mankind. Therefore, jade is expensive only because its beauty does not fully represent its "rarity", because in terms of content, jade is not rare compared with gold.
That thing which is rare is dear. Of course, gold, silver and jade articles have actually become very important currencies in ancient times. If we want to ask how humans found such items valuable, we must start from ancient times. The ancients in the Stone Age realized the role of stones, and many tools made of trees and stones came into being. This is a long and distant history of human civilization. It's not that people suddenly realize that something is important one day, but that some things are rare gradually in this historical process, so they will become very valuable.