雅思阅读素材下载：钱币

　　In the earliest stages of man’s development he had no more need of moneythan animals have. He was content with very simple forms of shelter, made hisown rough tools and weapons and could provide food and clothing for himself andhis family from natural materials around him. As he became more civilized,however, he began to want better shelter, more efficient tools and weapons, andmore comfortable and more lasting clothing than could be provided by his ownneighborhood or by the work of his own unskilled hands. For these things he hadto turn to the skilled people such as smiths, leather workers or carpenters. Itwas then that the question of payment arose.

　　At first he got what he wanted by a simple process of exchange. The smithwho had not the time to look after land or cattle was glad to take meat or grainfrom the farmer in exchange for an axe or a plough. But as more and more goodswhich had no fixed exchange value came on the market, exchange became toocomplicated to be satisfactory. Another problem arose when those who made thingswanted to get stocks of wood or leather, or iron, but had nothing to offer inexchange until their finished goods were ready.

　　Thus the difficulties of exchange led by degrees to the invention of money.In some countries easily handled things like seeds or shells were given acertain value and the farmer, instead of paying the smith for a new axe bygiving him some meat or grain, gave him so many shells. If the smith had anyshells left when he had bought his food, he could get stocks of the rawmaterials of his trade. In some countries quite large things such as cows orcamels or even big flat stones were used for trade. Later, pieces of metal,bearing values according to the rarity of the metal and the size of the pieces,or coins were used. Money as we know it had arrived....