Shells and money

Money is the product of the development of commodity production. Early human society in which the tortoise shell, the main physical currency bead jade, knife, horn, etc, appeared earlier and use broad, long-term physical currency is bei, such as: in henan Yin ruins unearthed in the cemetery of fu hao bei has a history of 3500 years ago, in Chinese, "a word associated with wealth, value and trade with the" bei ", such as money, expensive, poor, bribes, liability, etc.

 
In the central plains during the xia and shang dynasties, seashells were rare and often given as gifts by the emperors. "Shuo wen - bei bu" : "the ancient currency for treasure turtle, zhou er you quan, to qin waste bei xing qian.

Shell COINS in the Yin shang to the early spring and autumn circulation more.

 China's early primitive currency - shell COINS

Shell is the gift of the sea, it is solid round, has a pearly color. Shell money is money made from seashells. This is the earliest Chinese coin we know so far. Around the xia dynasty, shells from simple ornaments gradually produced the function of money, people can use it to buy things. In ancient times, there were many types of shellfish in China. The most commonly used species of shellfish was Cypraea moneta, which originated in the south China sea. The shell, which was used as money, was often smoothed or drilled to make it easy to carry. According to textual research, cargoes in Yin and shang dynasties had at least the following four functions: value measurement, circulation, storage and payment.

Foreign shellfish coin

One form of currency in the American colonies was borrowed from the indians from the conch beads, black and white beads made from mussel shells. Shell beads are made from seashells. The beads were used as legal tender in Massachusetts to pay off private debts until 1661 and as currency in New York until 1701.

Modern bei

Nowadays, the metal COINS issued by Taiwan are engraved with shells (sea fans), and there are many other countries and regions like Taiwan that use shellfish as the common currency, such as the republic of the south Pacific island nation of Taiwan and the cook islands territory administered by New Zealand. Many countries in the Solomon islands still use seashells as currency.