History
In ancient times, non-financial transactions were commonly conducted through a system of barter, in which goods and services were exchanged directly, without a financial medium. This had certain disadvantages, including the requirements that traders or their intermediaries meet face to face and that transactions normally be completed in a single swap. With the introduction of precious metals such as gold and silver, indirect trades greatly separated in time and space became possible. As cities, states, and empires were established, coins and other compact forms of specie were minted or printed as fiat money with set values, permitting the accumulation of assets that would not deteriorate over time as goods might and that had the relatively secure backing of a government which could adjust value by producing more or less of the currency. As fixed currencies were gradually replaced by floating currencies during the 20th century, and as the recent development of computer networks made electronic money possible, financial transactions have rapidly increased in speed and complexity.
Read more about this topic: Financial Transaction
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)