The Birth of Money

B01　—　Cross-cutting theme

The "birth of coinage" was not a singular event.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~9 min + textbook ~34 min = ~43 min　／　Beyond the text: 12 exercises · 4 coins · 15 readings

What this course teaches you to do

• You can say which part of "money came from the inconvenience of barter" has never been verified.
• You can explain what the punch guarantees, keeping it distinct from the metal itself.
• You can state, with grounds, that money was not invented in one place.
• You can handle "the birth for a land" and "the birth for humankind" without mixing them.
• Can distinguish between "origin" and "transmission," and provide concrete examples of each.
• Can explain the beginning of Japanese coinage in chronological order, from Mumon Gin-sen to Wadōkaichin.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. It is not written that money came from barterThe oldest records speak of debt, not exchange. The barter story is coherent, but no evidence has been found for it.
2. What the punch guaranteed was not the metalThe punch changes no metal. What changes is who guarantees the content. Money is about warranty, not material.
3. Born separately, on three continentsMoney is not one invention. It arose separately on three continents, and the forms differed.
4. Birth happens more than once"Birth" means two things: the first for humankind, and the first for a given land. Do not mix them.
5. The First Coin Without a Picture — From Striations to the LionThe first electrum coins had no imagery. The perfection of the guarantee involved three steps: material, form, and seal.
6. Where It Is Born, Where It Is Transmitted — The Window of EmporionInvention in three places, transmission in countless. Lands where it was transmitted have a "window," and these windows have names that remain.
7. An Island That Began with Imports — From the Kaiyuan Tongbao to the Wado KaichinJapan began by modeling its coinage on that of Tang China. The weight of a single one of these model coins even became the unit known as the monme.
8. The Second Birth — Sichuan's Deposit ReceiptsBanknotes originated as an innovation by merchants and became currency through state recognition. The pattern of their birth was the same as for metal.

Case studies — applied in the materials (15)

• Before the beginning　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　3000 BC　Mesopotamia
  §1. Check what the clay tablets actually recorded.
• Before the beginning　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　the age of legend　Lydia · The Pactolus
  §2. The stage at which it is not yet a coin.
• Before the beginning　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　650 BC　Blank Electrum
  §2. ⚠ Not even an image — "a punch before punches." This is the core of the course.
• Lydia　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　600 BC　Lydia · Sardis
  §2. The moment a state guaranteed weight and fineness.
• Islam and India　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　the 6th century BC　India · Punch-Marked Silver
  §3. The grounds for saying it arose separately on three continents.
• The Greeks' window　Spain　about 575 BC　Emporion (today's Empúries)
  §4. The first for the peninsula. ⚠ Note how the range of dates is written.
• The silver rider　Netherlands　from 1586 to the present day　The gold workshop of the mint
  §4. A standard that has gone on being struck for over four hundred years.
• The war of the two crowns　Spain　1717　The Barcelona mint
  §4. Look at what ended behind the birth.
• The pillar dollar　Spain　1728 and 1730　Madrid
  §4. The birth of a way of making. Note the recorded fineness as well.
• Before the coin　Japan　from 621　Chang'an, Tang China
  Section 7. A model piece. Do not overlook the line stating that the weight became the "monme".
• Before the coin　Japan　from about 667　Ōtsu Palace, Ōmi Province
  Section 7. The reality of weighed money. Inconsistent weights and added silver fragments.
• The monetary civilisation of the East　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　AD 1023　Song · Sichuan
  Section 8. The moment the world's first paper money was born from merchants' deposit receipts.
• The Silver Coin of the Sea Turtle　Greece　Circa 550 BC (disputed)　The Port of Aegina
  This is a coin from an island that adopted an invention born in the East and remade it in silver. Please read on to see what the sea turtle carrying its shell has been interpreted as a symbol of.
• Coinage ceases　Kievan Rus'　12th–14th centuries　Rus' principalities
  This is a record of a land that, having once acquired the technology of striking, abandoned it for two hundred years. Please note the description of how payments continued with silver bars and furs, and that all we know is that life went on.
• Jeonhwanguk　Korea　July 1883　The Jeonhwanguk in Hanseong
  From casting by pouring molten metal into a mould, to striking with a press. A declaration to change the manufacturing method itself is described, along with the reasons of a nation that opened its borders late.

Assessment

12 exercises in this course (8 check, 1 compare, 3 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.