Money: 10 Millenniums In The Making

In the contemporary era, everything revolves around money, a concept proposed since the emergence of the earliest civilization as a general medium of trade. The first thing a man could conjure up in their minds every morning is money, whether it would be farmers in the Philippines or white collar workers in Washington. Money had become the ultimate incentive that had powered our civilization and had shaped the world to its current state. Frankly, money is what we all strive for. It seems that money is not simply an object of value, but an element that had redefined how we live our lives, an agent of globalization and had kindled conflict for the duration of our history yet we know so little about it. People often ask themselves "How do I make money?" but not how money is actually made to the form we see today. With such a question that puzzled our minds, my team and I set out to uncover the story behind currency.

Money At A Glance

The concept of currency began as early as the pre-historic times in the rise of hunter gatherer communities. Goods foraged or hunted is often traded with one another, this is called the barter system. Although barter system seemed to be a rational system for early economies, there are numerous shortcomings of this mean of trade, since there are no explicitly stated benchmark of value  of goods and often these goods could not last over time, the barter system was proven obsolete by the rise of agrarian societies. When the people being adept of domesticating plants and animals, civilizations appeared and the first forms of government came into power, centralized currency was born. Rugged, durable and iconic, aristocrats of the ancient world had placed an official measure of value in their money. Whether it would be cowrie shells in the Pacific or the Denarii of Rome, money became the standard measurement of value and a commodity that could be traded universally. With the advent of metallurgy, precious metals were stamped into coins with a government cipher, making the coin a durable and iconic medium of trade that became dominant in the classical world and is still in use today. Despite all its advantages, the coin is cumbersome and a hassle to make, which these factors inspire the invention of the bank note. Fabricated from fibrous materials, the note is significantly lighter than the coin, yet is flexible in its function for any amount of money could be printed on it. The Tang Dynasty in China had pioneered this concept with the "flying cash", which its name came from how easily it could be blown away due to its lightweight. In Europe, the invention of bank notes became pivotal in our understanding of currency. The bank note started out as a goldsmith's check to redeem one's gold deposited in his vault. These checks are traded liberally and very few returned to the goldsmith for redemption. From then on, bank notes became a legally binding contract, a government's "promise to pay" and hence, a currency's value no longer determined on the materials it is made of, but the government's ability to fullfil this "contract". Currency evolved in parallel to our advancements in technology, which in the informational age, money is now electronic. Electronic payments could be made via credit cards of through carriers like PayPal, so in the near future money may not be a tangible matter anymore.

Tang "Flying Cash" Circa 618-906 CE

The Infographics


In today's world, time is of the essences. The world is revolving at a pace that every move that slows us down will leave us behind in the ever changing world. Therefore, the reception process of information must be accelerated for us to catch up with the rest of the world. Textbooks and essays are obsolete, for such an archaic method of learning will halt our progress in pursuit of information. In the contemporary era, the world and our attention span could only spare us mere minutes to learn. LESS is MORE in the contemporary world and it is how we can compress milleniums worth of information in the smallest parcel possible for our recipient that matters most. But by what means? Enter the infographic.

The infographic is a concentrate of information, squeezed in a short slide that contains a multitude of images and statistics, presented in an artistic way. Our team had decided to create an infographics on our findings in matters concerning the evolution of currency. The infographic we made gave the audiences a concise overview of how money develops through time, with humorous tid-bits of information to spice up a rather dull concept. It offers educational, entertainment and artistic value all in a few megabytes of space. The facts we have displayed on this piece are well researched and condensed into short, easily comprehendible blurbs suitable for audiences of any age. Along with our facts, we have incorporated a few "fun facts" or obscure knowledge about money, which would make our audiences laugh. All facts are accompanied with hand-drawn or photoshopped images meticulously put together by the team, which indeed makes this infographic a work of art that will be appreciated in all occasions. Most importantly, our audiences would be well informed of the history of our money without having to spend hours scanning the archives. In mere minutes, 10 milleniums of evolution in our currency flashed before their eyes, and that is an achievement we take pride of. We have provided the world with yet another medium of education on money like no other, it is a chapter in an economics textbook compiled into a page! As the research division of the team and an economics student, I've spent weeks learning this very topic in class, yet if the instructor had synthesized the facts into a format like our infographics, we would not have to waste that much time. Economists often consider time as an opportunity cost and by learning with our infographic, a chapter of the textbook is covered, that's a bargain!


Behind the Scenes


An infographic may look simple in content, but do not let the looks fool you, it is an arduous task, especially with a team to manage and a deadline to meet. The team consists of three people, including me. Leadership in these circumstances is the key to success, and it is I that took the initiative to lead. My management strategie utilizes the division of labor to its authentic form, which is literally dividing my group into three divisions according to the teammate's atributes: the research, technology and art division. The role of each division is clearly stated and in addition of being a researcher, I oversee the whole operation. To increase the efficiency of our work, I have set secondary due dates for components made by the teammates such as images and the template to ensure a smooth operation. The procedure of making this infographics are as follows:

1) Find all the information necessary.

2) Draw a brief plan on paper, then distribute it among the crew

3) The art division drew the picture in accordance to the facts

4) The tech division will build a template of the infographic on a software and photoshop images sent by the members of the group.

5) Facts and images are assembled on the template by the tech-division and finalize the project by adding some finishing touches.

A draft of the infographic. Note the ridiculous use of color!

With exceptional discipline my group mates have submitted their work on time and the project was completed just in time. Our art division's talent had exceeded our expectation, with the use of the "Bamboo" apparatus to draw images into the computer, we have produced authentic pieces of art that matched well with the tech division's photoshopped images. The template is made using a simple, yet innovative software called Pages on the Mac OS. Pages is a word processing program with similar attributes to Microsoft Word, but is more interactive (human friendly) and is capable of producing high end document formats and objects. This is why our tech-division had selected Pages because its simply one of the best means to make a professional looking template without any hassle. We are indeed a technology oriented team which adopted various forms of technology to make this project a success, including Google Docs and Skype as a medium to distribute information or relaying commands.

An example if image drawn using the Bamboo.

Nothing is perfect and there are instances of problems in the operation. One of the most critical issues our group must contend with is the differences in the crew's working hour and absences. In our working stages, I have been absent due to a field trip I must attend, causing the work to lag behind and there are no to inspect the group's work. This delay in progress caused us to have to rush through the project, compromising its quality. Another impediment to our progress is technology, like a double edged blade, technology could both help and hurt us at the same time. In  a timed, high stress situations, the tech-division puzzled over the methods of creating the template and formatting it, thus this process of trial and error significantly slowed us down. Nevertheless, as an IT virtuoso, the tech-division had came up with an ingenius solution, the Pages.

An image before photoshopping, used in the infographics. Note how editing images adds originality in the project.

Making this infographics is more than a mere assignment to us, but a lesson for every one in the team. It is a challenge that have pushed us over the edge of conventional methods of learning, instead of absorbing knowledge, we share it. That is indeed a difficulty we must overcome and when we do, our horizon is broadened. We learn to integrate technology, knowledge and art in harmony to each other and create a product that will be valued. This is progress.