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Use of receipts representing money in the modern sense can be traced to
early Roman times, when money lenders would accumulate deposits of coin to
lend to borrowers, and write receipts to depositors to certify ownership
of the amounts deposited and lent out. Some money lenders would let
depositors endorse their receipts to third parties. Once receipts for
specific amounts of value, but not specifying a bearer by name, were
written and circulated, true paper money came into being.
Lenders also formed business liaisons between themselves, recognizing and
accepting receipts issued by other members of the same group, such as a
banking guild. This practice soon broadened to include lenders in other
towns, some significantly distant from one another. Given the dangers of
travel between population centres 2000 years ago, the convenience for
travellers of obtaining a certificate of deposit from a lender in one
place, recognized by a lender in another, was a great advance over
carrying large amounts of gold or silver on their person. As for the
lenders, when they needed to clear balances, they could pool their
resources to form guarded caravans to protect the movement of gold between
cities. Few individual travellers could afford such services on their own.
Surviving literature from the Roman period does not confirm money lenders
went to the next level of writing and circulated bearer receipts
representing specific, repeated, face-values in gold or coin. If they had,
the concept would have constituted the first paper money in the modern
sense of the term. Based on available ancient sources of information, the
honour of inventing and using paper money in that manner goes to the
Chinese. |
