Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

BANKING IMAGINE that you are a druggist in a small town. Suppose that a woman comes in to buy two ounces of camphor and in exchange gives you three eggs. In a few moments, perhaps, a man enters to buy a safety razor and brings with him wheat enough to pay the bill. Another, again, wishes to trade a turkey for a fountain pen. You can readily see the inconvenience to which you would be put in such exchange of actual commodities; yet this was the method used in primitive times, a method called _barter_. To overcome the inconvenience of barter, as civilization advanced, it became necessary to establish a common medium of exchange, which could be accepted for anything one had to sell and with which one could buy anything he wished. This is what we call _money_. To meet the requirements, money must not be bulky, must be durable, and must not readily change in value. In civilized countries gold and silver are the bases of exchange. But gold and silver are heavy and inconvenient to carry about in large, or for that matter in small, quantities, and for convenience the following kinds of paper money have been established: