Читать книгу Islamic Finance and the New Financial System - Alrifai Tariq - Страница 9

Financial systems existed long before gold and silver were used as a medium of exchange. One of the earliest forms of money was cattle and other animals, which were used as a medium of exchange and a store of value as early as 9000 BCE.1 Animals were used as payment under Roman law, whereby fines were paid in oxen and sheep.2 Sacks of grain, salt, and even seashells have been used as a form of currency for trade at one point in time.3 Thus, trade, taxation, and payment of fines existed before metal coins and money as we know them today were used.

There is even some research supporting the idea that debt and credit existed before coins and other money came into existence.4 According to David Graber's research and his book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, the first recorded credit and debt systems developed more than 5,000 years ago as means of accounting. Credit and debt existed in the Sumerian civilization around 3500 BCE. In this system of credit, farmers would often become so indebted that their children would be forced into slavery as a means to repay the debt. These debt slaves were periodically released by kings, who canceled all debts and granted them amnesty under what came to be known as the Law of Jubilee in ancient Israel. One of the conclusions of this research was that indebtedness throughout history often led to unrest, insurrections, and revolts.

Though barter was also used throughout ancient societies, it was never a complete system or means of account, as other social factors came into play. Social currencies (i.e., interaction among the community and mutual expectations and responsibilities among individuals) completed early financial systems. Social bonds were also created through gifts, marriages, and general sociability. This type of economy stood in contrast to the moral foundations of exchange, based on formal equality, reciprocity, and hierarchy. This system established the customs in a society, which also led to the development of caste systems (the “haves” and the “have nots”).5

One of the first written codes of law mentioning money and debt was the Code of Hammurabi, enacted by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 BCE to 1750 BCE.6 The code consisted of 282 laws dealing with a wide range of matters, from trade to family relationships. Nearly half of the code dealt with laws for contracts, the establishment of wages, interest rates on debt, inheritance, and property rights.7

The first mention of the use of money within the Bible is in the book of Genesis,8 which refers to the criteria of the circumcision of a bought slave. There are other early references to money going back as far as the twentieth century BCE, such as Abraham's reference to the purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs.9

An example of an ancient currency is the shekel. It was an ancient unit of account used in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE10 to define both a specific weight of barley and equivalent amounts of materials such as silver, bronze, and copper.

The use of coins later developed primarily as a means to pay soldiers in ever-expanding empires around the world. The rise of great empires in China, India, and the Mediterranean was marked by extreme violence as these empires grew and required more and more resources to pay for their expansion. In this way, coins developed to pay soldiers in far-off lands as well as to enforce the payment of taxes by the state's subjects to subsidize its growing armies. Around 1000 BCE, money in the shape of small knives and spades made of bronze were in use in China. The first manufactured coins appeared in India, China, and cities around the Aegean Sea between 700 and 500 BCE.11