Money – an abstraction of value

Now, let's consider the concept of money as an abstraction of value.

Money is as old as human civilization, and civilization itself is reliant on possessing ways through which they can exchange, account for, and transfer value. What once started as barter trade (trading goods for goods) was replaced with using standardized token money.

Gold and silver were the first universally accepted natural choices for money. Actually, they fit the bill so well that they were the primary form of money across the globe for centuries, and have been instilled in human culture. When we say gold, the first thing that comes to mind is value or wealth.

After this came paper money, a more user-friendly way to carry and move around value, as compared to precious metals. China was the first to adopt it, in the seventh century. However, the western world didn't catch up on this monetary innovation until Marco Polo introduced it to Europe in the thirteenth century. Even then, the first European banknotes weren't issued until the seventeenth century. It took people several centuries to accept the new paradigm at the time, and to shift from gold and silver coins to banknotes backed by the same precious metals as the widely used form of money.