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First Money — History of the Croatian Currency |
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Below you will find some information on the origin of money, its value and importance, and a summary of the development of the Croatian currency. |
 What is money? How and where had it originated? What is its basic function? What has been its effect on the development of social communities?
According to the General Encyclopaedia of the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographic Institute, money is a specific commodity, which has been transformed through the development of manufacturing and trade into the general equivalent of value. Dr Anton Bauer, a Croatian museologist and collector, emphasises that, besides being primarily a means of payment in trade and a historic and economic document, money is a valuable dated artistic and cultural artefact and a document testifying to the script and language of a historical period. Before the creation of money, its function had been performed by cattle, shells, fur and wheat. This is confirmed by the Latin name for money, pecunia, which derives from the word pecus, meaning cattle. The first money was created in response to an increasing need for a monetary unit of value, brought about by the development of trade. This money was in the form of lumps, rods and gold or silver objects and its value was determined by weighing. The development of social communities and the growing need for a simpler mode of money circulation gave rise to new types of money, which were based on the defined value relations between metals. The weight and quality of money has in the course of time been made subject to specific rules, including the one that the nominal value of money must equal the value of its real content, which was subsequently abandoned. |
