In economics Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)". Current, the term currency can refer to a particular currency, for example Pound Sterling The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies (the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence (singular: penny), or to the coins and banknotes of a particular currency, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply In economics, the money supply or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money," but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits. The other part of a nation's money supply consists of money deposited in banks (sometimes called deposit money), ownership of which can be transferred by means of cheques A cheque or check is a piece of paper (usually) that orders a payment of money. The person writing the cheque, the drawer or maker, usually has a chequing account where their money is deposited. The maker writes the various details including the money amount, date, and a payee on the cheque, and signs it, ordering their bank, know as the drawee, or other forms of money transfer such as credit and debit cards. Deposit money and currency are money in the sense that both are acceptable as a means of exchange, but money need not necessarily be currency.[1]

Historically, money in the form of currency has predominated. Usually (gold or silver) coins of intrinsic value commensurate with the monetary unit (commodity money Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity out of which it is made. It is objects that have value in themselves as well as for use as money), have been the norm. By contrast, modern currency, as fiat money The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done", as the money is established by government decree. Where fiat money is used as currency, the term fiat currency is used. Today, most national currencies are fiat currencies, including the US dollar, the euro, and all other reserve currencies, and have been since the Nixon, is intrinsically worthless.

Contents

Control and production

In most cases, each private central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a banking institution granted the exclusive privilege to lend a government its currency. Like a normal commercial bank, a central bank charges interest on the loans made to borrowers, primarily the government of whichever country the bank exists for, and to other commercial banks, typically as has monopoly In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos / μονος + polein / πωλειν (to sell)) exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. (This is in contrast to a monopsony which relates to a control over the supply and production of its own currency. To facilitate trade International trade is exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.. In most countries, it represents a significant share of gross domestic product . While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance has been on between these currency zones, there are different exchange rates In finance, the exchange rates between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. It is the value of a foreign nation’s currency in terms of the home nation’s currency. For example an exchange rate of 91 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 91 is worth the same as USD 1, which are the prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies A floating currency is a currency that uses a floating exchange rate as its exchange rate regime. A floating currency is contrasted with a fixed currency or fixed currencies A fixed exchange rate, sometimes called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is matched to the value of another single currency or to a basket of other currencies, or to another measure of value, such as gold based on their exchange rate regime The exchange rate regime is the way a country manages its currency in respect to foreign currencies and the foreign exchange market. It is closely related to monetary policy and the two are generally dependent on many of the same factors.

In cases where a country does have control of its own currency, that control is exercised either by a central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a banking institution granted the exclusive privilege to lend a government its currency. Like a normal commercial bank, a central bank charges interest on the loans made to borrowers, primarily the government of whichever country the bank exists for, and to other commercial banks, typically as or by a Ministry of Finance A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances. Finance ministers are often found in state or provincial governments if that country has a form of federalism. In either case, the institution that has control of monetary policy is referred to as the monetary authority. Monetary authorities have varying degrees of autonomy from the governments that create them. In the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, the Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created in 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, and was largely a response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907. Over time, the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System have expanded and its structure operates without direct oversight by the legislative or executive branches. A monetary authority is created and supported by its sponsoring government, so independence can be reduced by the legislative or executive authority that creates it. (Revocation of authority is unlikely in Western countries The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical, where there has been a trend towards central bank independence.)

Several countries can use the same name for their own distinct currencies (e.g., dollar in Canada The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. It is normally abbreviated with the Dollar/Peso sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar was the 7th most traded currency in the world, behind the US dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound sterling, the Swiss and the United States The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents). By contrast, several countries can also use the same currency (e.g., the euro The euro is the official currency of the Eurozone: 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) and is the currency used by the EU institutions. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Estonia is due to), or one country can declare the currency of another country to be legal tender Legal tender or forced tender is an offered payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt, and have the debt remain in force. Currency is the most common form of legal tender. For example, Panama Panama (pronounced /ˈpænəmɑː/ ), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá; pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of both Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the and El Salvador El Salvador (pronounced /ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ ; Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally meaning "Republic of the Savior") is the smallest and also the most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as do Honduras and Nicaragua further have declared U.S. currency to be legal tender, and from 1791–1857, Spanish Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for silver coins were legal tender in the United States. At various times countries have either re-stamped foreign coins, or used currency board A currency board is a monetary authority which is required to maintain a fixed exchange rate with a foreign currency. This policy objective requires the conventional objectives of a central bank to be subordinated to the exchange rate target issuing one note of currency for each note of a foreign government held, as Ecuador Ecuador (pronounced /ˈɛkwədɔr/ ), officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðel ekwaˈðor]), literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to currently does.

Each currency typically has a main currency unit (the U.S. dollar The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents, for example, or the euro The euro is the official currency of the Eurozone: 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) and is the currency used by the EU institutions. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Estonia is due to) and a fractional currency, often valued at 1⁄100 of the main currency: 100 cents In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent = 1 dollar The dollar is the name of the official currency in several economies, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Eastern Caribbean territories, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor, Ecuador, Suriname, El Salvador, Panama, and Belize, 100 centimes Centime is French for "cent", and is used in English as the name of the fraction currency in several Francophone countries (including Switzerland, Algeria, Belgium, Morocco and France) = 1 franc The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the French franc, the currency of France until it adopted the euro in 1999 , and the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription francorum rex ("King of the Franks"), 100 pence The British decimal one penny coin, produced by the Royal Mint, was issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice, it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously. The coin, known at first as a "new penny", was initially minted from bronze, but since 1992 it has been = 1 pound The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies (the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence (singular: penny), although units of 1⁄10 or 1⁄1000 are also common. Some currencies do not have any smaller units at all, such as the Icelandic króna The króna (sign: kr; code: ISK) is the currency of Iceland. The króna is technically subdivided into 100 aurar (singular eyrir), but in practice this subdivision is no longer used.

Mauritania Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in North Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest. It is named after the Roman province of Mauretania, even though the modern state and Madagascar Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world are the only remaining countries that do not use the decimal system; instead, the Mauritanian ouguiya The ouguiya , also spelt ougiya, is the currency of Mauritania. It is the only circulating currency other than the Malagasy ariary whose division units are not based on a power of ten, each ouguiya comprising five khoums (singular and plural in English, Arabic: خمس‎, meaning "one fifth") is divided into 5 khoums The khoums is the subdivisory unit of the Mauritanian Ouguiya. Five khoums make an ouguiya, hence one khoums can be expressed as MRO/0.2; two as 0.4, four khoums as 0.8, etc. However, due to the khoums's extremely small value (about 0.058 euro cent as of 2006), the khoums probably[original research?] fell into disuse as a unit of account quite, while the Malagasy Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world ariary The ariary is the currency of Madagascar. It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja and is one of only two non-decimal currencies currently circulating (the other is the Mauritanian ouguiya). The names ariary and iraimbilanja derive from the pre-colonial currency, with ariary being the name for a silver dollar. Iraimbilanja means literally "one is divided into 5 iraimbilanja The iraimbilanja is the divisory currency unit of Madagascar, being equal to one fifth of an ariary. The old Malagasy franc is equal in value to one iraimbilanja. As of early 2005 the value of one iraimbilanja is about US$0.0001093. In these countries, words like dollar or pound "were simply names for given weights of gold."[2] Due to inflation In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit khoums and iraimbilanja have in practice fallen into disuse. (See non-decimal currencies Today, only two countries in the world use non-decimal currencies. These are Mauritania and Madagascar (1 ariary = 5 iraimbilanja). In both cases the value of the main unit is so low that the sub-unit is too small to be of any practical use and coins of the sub-unit are no longer used for other historic currencies with non-decimal divisions.)

History

Early currency

The origin of currency is the creation of a circulating medium of exchange By contrast, as William Stanley Jevons argued, in a barter system there must be a coincidence of wants before two people can trade – one must want exactly what the other has to offer, when and where it is offered, so that the exchange can occur. A medium of exchange permits the value of goods to be assessed and rendered in terms of the based on a unit of account A unit of account is a standard monetary unit of measurement of the market value/cost of goods, services, or assets. It is one of three well-known functions of money. It lends meaning to profits, losses, liability, or assets which quickly becomes a store of value A recognized form of exchange can be a form of money or currency, a commodity like gold, or financial capital. To act as a store of value, these forms must be able to be saved and retrieved at a later time, and be predictably useful when retrieved. Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred by 2000 BC. Originally money was a form of receipting grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th in ancient Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwestern Iran, then Ancient Egypt.

This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place that was safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military. By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of international treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the northwest to Elam and Bahrain in the southeast. Although it is not known what functioned as a currency to facilitate these exchanges, it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus may have functioned as a currency. It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Bronze Age collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea, brought this trading system to an end. It was only with the recovery of Phoenician trade in the ninth and tenth centuries BC that saw a return to prosperity, and the appearance of real coinage, possibly first in Anatolia with Croesus of Lydia and subsequently with the Greeks and Persians. In Africa many forms of value store have been used including beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, livestock, the manilla currency, ochre and other earth oxides, and so on. The manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to buy and sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, and in many places various forms of barter still apply.

Coinage

These factors led to the shift of the store of value being the metal itself: at first silver, then both silver and gold. Metals were mined, weighed, and stamped into coins. This was to assure the individual taking the coin that he was getting a certain known weight of precious metal. Coins could be counterfeited, but they also created a new unit of account, which helped lead to banking. Archimedes' principle provided the next link: coins could now be easily tested for their fine weight of metal, and thus the value of a coin could be determined, even if it had been shaved, debased or otherwise tampered with (see Numismatics).

In most major economies using coinage, copper, silver and gold formed three tiers of coins. Gold coins were used for large purchases, payment of the military and backing of state activities. Silver coins were used for midsized transactions, and as a unit of account for taxes, dues, contracts and fealty, while copper coins represented the coinage of common transaction. This system had been used in ancient India since the time of the Mahajanapadas. In Europe, this system worked through the medieval period because there was virtually no new gold, silver or copper introduced through mining or conquest.[citation needed] Thus the overall ratios of the three coinages remained roughly equivalent.

Paper Money

Main article: Banknote

In premodern China, the need for credit and for circulating a medium that was less of a burden than exchanging thousands of copper coins led to the introduction of paper money, commonly known today as banknotes. This economic phenomenon was a slow and gradual process that took place from the late Tang Dynasty (618–907) into the Song Dynasty (960–1279). It began as a means for merchants to exchange heavy coinage for receipts of deposit issued as promissory notes from shops of wholesalers, notes that were valid for temporary use in a small regional territory. In the 10th century, the Song Dynasty government began circulating these notes amongst the traders in their monopolized salt industry. The Song government granted several shops the sole right to issue banknotes, and in the early 12th century the government finally took over these shops to produce state-issued currency. Yet the banknotes issued were still regionally valid and temporary; it was not until the mid 13th century that a standard and uniform government issue of paper money was made into an acceptable nationwide currency. The already widespread methods of woodblock printing and then Bi Sheng's movable type printing by the 11th century was the impetus for the massive production of paper money in premodern China.

At around the same time in the medieval Islamic world, a vigorous monetary economy was created during the 7th–12th centuries on the basis of the expanding levels of circulation of a stable high-value currency (the dinar). Innovations introduced by Muslim economists, traders and merchants include the earliest uses of credit,[3] cheques, promissory notes,[4] savings accounts, transactional accounts, loaning, trusts, exchange rates, the transfer of credit and debt,[5] and banking institutions for loans and deposits.[6]

In Europe paper money was first introduced in Sweden in 1661. Sweden was rich in copper, thus, because of copper's low value, extraordinarily big coins (often weighing several kilograms) had to be made.

The advantages of paper currency were numerous: it reduced transport of gold and silver, and thus lowered the risks; it made loaning gold or silver at interest easier, since the specie (gold or silver) never left the possession of the lender until someone else redeemed the note; and it allowed for a division of currency into credit and specie backed forms. It enabled the sale of stock in joint stock companies, and the redemption of those shares in paper.

However, these advantages held within them disadvantages. First, since a note has no intrinsic value, there was nothing to stop issuing authorities from printing more of it than they had specie to back it with. Second, because it created money that did not exist, it increased inflationary pressures, a fact observed by David Hume in the 18th century. The result is that paper money would often lead to an inflationary bubble, which could collapse if people began demanding hard money, causing the demand for paper notes to fall to zero. The printing of paper money was also associated with wars, and financing of wars, and therefore regarded as part of maintaining a standing army.

For these reasons, paper currency was held in suspicion and hostility in Europe and America. It was also addictive, since the speculative profits of trade and capital creation were quite large. Major nations established mints to print money and mint coins, and branches of their treasury to collect taxes and hold gold and silver stock.

Legal tender era

With the creation of central banks, currency underwent several significant changes. During both the coinage and credit money eras the number of entities which had the ability to coin or print money was quite large. One could, literally, have "a license to print money"; many nobles had the right of coinage. Royal colonial companies, such as the Massachusetts Bay Company or the British East India Company could issue notes of credit—money backed by the promise to pay later, or exchangeable for payments owed to the company itself. This led to continual instability of the value of money. The exposure of coins to debasement and shaving, however, presented the same problem in another form: with each pair of hands a coin passed through, its value grew less.

The solution which evolved beginning in the late 18th century and through the 19th century was the creation of a central monetary authority which had a virtual monopoly on issuing currency, and whose notes had to be accepted for "all debts public and private". The creation of a truly national currency, backed by the government's store of precious metals, and enforced by their military and governmental control over an area was, in its time, extremely controversial. Advocates of the old system of Free Banking repealed central banking laws, or slowed down the adoption of restrictions on local currency. (See Gold standard for a fuller discussion of the creation of a standard gold based currency).

At this time both silver and gold were considered legal tender, and accepted by governments for taxes. However, the instability in the ratio between the two grew over the course of the 19th century, with the increase both in supply of these metals, particularly silver, and of trade. This is called bimetallism and the attempt to create a bimetallic standard where both gold and silver backed currency remained in circulation occupied the efforts of inflationists. Governments at this point could use currency as an instrument of policy, printing paper currency such as the United States Greenback, to pay for military expenditures. They could also set the terms at which they would redeem notes for specie, by limiting the amount of purchase, or the minimum amount that could be redeemed.

By 1900, most of the industrializing nations were on some form of gold standard, with paper notes and silver coins constituting the circulating medium. Private banks and governments across the world followed Gresham's Law: keeping gold and silver paid, but paying out in notes. This did not happen all around the world at the same time, but occurred sporadically, generally in times of war or financial crisis, beginning in the early part of the 20th century and continuing across the world until the late 20th century, when the regime of floating fiat currencies came into force. One of the last countries to break away from the gold standard was the United States in 1971.

No country anywhere in the world today has an enforceable gold standard or silver standard currency system.

Banknote era

Main articles: Banknote and Fiat currency

A banknote (more commonly known as a bill in the United States and Canada) is a type of currency, and commonly used as legal tender in many jurisdictions. With coins, banknotes make up the cash form of all money. Mostly paper, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation developed the world's first polymer currency in the 1980s that went into circulation on the nation's bicentennary in 1988. Now used in some 22 countries(over 40 if counting commemorative issues), polymer currency dramatically improves the life span of banknotes and prevents counterfeiting.

Modern currencies

To find out which currency is used in a particular country, check list of circulating currencies.

Currently, the International Organization for Standardization has introduced a three-letter system of codes (ISO 4217) to define currency (as opposed to simple names or currency signs), in order to remove the confusion that there are dozens of currencies called the dollar and many called the franc. Even the pound is used in nearly a dozen different countries, all, of course, with wildly differing values. In general, the three-letter code uses the ISO 3166-1 country code for the first two letters and the first letter of the name of the currency (D for dollar, for instance) as the third letter. United States currency, for instance is globally referred to as USD.

The International Monetary Fund uses a variant system when referring to national currencies.

For exchange rates, see exchange rate and Tables of historical exchange rates to the USD.

Local currencies

Main article: Local currency

In economics, a local currency is a currency not backed by a national government, and intended to trade only in a small area. Advocates such as Jane Jacobs argue that this enables an economically depressed region to pull itself up, by giving the people living there a medium of exchange that they can use to exchange services and locally produced goods (In a broader sense, this is the original purpose of all money.) Opponents of this concept argue that local currency creates a barrier which can interfere with economies of scale and comparative advantage, and that in some cases they can serve as a means of tax evasion.

Local currencies can also come into being when there is economic turmoil involving the national currency. An example of this is the Argentinian economic crisis of 2002 in which IOUs issued by local governments quickly took on some of the characteristics of local currencies.

Proposed currencies

See also

Numismatics portal
Related concepts Accounting units Lists

Notes

  1. ^ Bernstein, Peter, A Primer on Money, Banking and Gold, John Wiley, 2008 edition, Chapters 4–5
  2. ^ Turk, James (2007). The Collapse of the Dollar. Doubleday. pp. 43 of 252. ISBN 9780385512244.
  3. ^ Jairus Banaji (2007), "Islam, the Mediterranean and the rise of capitalism", Journal Historical Materialism 15 (1), p. 47–74, Brill Publishers.
  4. ^ Robert Sabatino Lopez, Irving Woodworth Raymond, Olivia Remie Constable 2010 Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231123574.
  5. ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), p. 79–96 [93].
  6. ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), p. 79–96 [81–84].
  7. ^ CARICOM Single Market (CSM) ratified. This article mentions a single currency but does not speculate on a name

Categories: Currency | Foreign exchange market

 

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