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Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, summed up the four chief qualities of money some 2,000 years ago. It must be lasting and easy to recognize, to divide, and to carry about. When we think of money today, we picture it either as round, flat pieces of metal which we call coins, or as printed paper notes. But there are still parts of the world today where coins and notes are of no use. They will buy nothing, and a traveler might starve if he had none of the particular local "money" to exchange for food.
Among isolated people, who are not often reached by traders from outside, commerce usually means barter. There is a direct exchange of goods. For this kind of simple trading, money is not needed, but there is often something that everyone wants and everybody can use, such as salt to flavor food, shells for ornaments, or iron and copper to make into tools and vessels.
These things—salt, shells or metals—are still used as money in out-of-the-way parts of the world today.
Salt may seem rather a strange substance to use as money, but in countries where the food of the people is mainly vegetable, it is often an absolute necessity. Sea shells have been used as money at some time or another over the greater part of the Old World. These were collected mainly from the beaches of the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, and were traded to India and China. In Africa, cowries were traded right across the continent from East to West.
Metal, valued by weight, preceded coins in many parts of the world. Iron, in lumps, bars or rings, is still used in many countries instead of money. It can either be exchanged for goods, or made into tools, weapons or ornaments. The early money of China, apart from shell, was of bronze, often in flat, round pieces with a hole in the middle, called "cash". The earliest of these are between 3,000 and 4,000 years old—older than the earliest coins of the eastern Mediterranean.
Nowadays, coins and notes have replaced nearly all the more picturesque forms of money, and although in one or two of the more remote countries people still hold it for future use on ceremonial occasions such as weddings and funerals, examples of primitive money will soon be found only in museums.
Question 22. What characteristic should money have according to Aristotle?
Question 23. What does the speaker say about commerce among isolated people?
Question 24. Why are salt and shells still used as money today?
Question 25. What do we learn about the early "cash" of China?
亞里士多德，希臘哲學家，在2000年前概括了錢的四種主要特質。它必須具有持久性、易于辨認、分割、攜帶。今天我們談到錢的時候，要么想到扁平的圓形金屬，我們稱之為硬幣，要么是印有花色的紙張。但是當今世界仍有一些地方硬幣和紙錢毫無用處。它們買不到任何東西，如果游客沒有當地特殊的“錢”來交換食物，他們就會挨餓。
對一些外界商人很難接觸到的隔絕人群而言，商業通常意味著以物易物。他們會直接交換貨物。這種簡單的貿易不需要錢，但是有一些東西是人人渴望、人人能用的，比如鹽、面粉、裝飾貝殼，或者是用來制作工具和船舶的鐵和銅。
今天，這些東西——鹽、貝殼或者金屬——在與世隔絕的地方依然被當做錢用。
把鹽當做錢用可能是一件很奇怪的事，不過在一些食物主要是蔬菜的國家，鹽通常是必需品。在舊世界時期，海洋貝殼時不時被當做錢來用。它們主要是從印度洋馬爾代夫群島上的沙灘上采集而來，通過貿易抵達印度和中國。在非洲，寶貝螺的貿易從東部到西部橫貫整個大洲。
金屬，通過重量來決定價值，在世界上很多地方的出現時間都比硬幣要早。很多國家依然在使用鐵塊、鐵棒、鐵環，而不是錢。金屬要么用來交換貨物，要么用來制成工具、武器或裝飾品。中國早期的錢除了貝殼以外還有銅，通常是扁平的圓片，中間有一個孔，被稱作“現錢”。這些東西最早出現在三四千年前，比東地中海最初的硬幣還要早。
現在，雖然在偏遠的一兩個國家，人們依然保留著金錢更為直觀的形式，為了用在諸如婚禮葬禮這樣的正式場合上，但是硬幣和紙錢幾乎已經替代了所有此類金錢，很快就只能在博物館里見到原始的金錢樣品了。
問題22 根據亞里士多德，錢應該有哪些特質？
問題23 作者對隔絕人群之間的商業說了些什么？
問題24 為什么現在鹽和貝殼依然被當做錢來用？
問題25 關于中國古代的“現錢”，我們知道些什么？
譯文屬可可原創，僅供學習和交流使用，未經允許不得轉載
