We All Know How Important Money Is. But Who Invented It?
King Midas didn’t invent money — but did his neighbor?
“So Midas, king of Lydia, swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid, and his drink harden into golden ice, then he understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer.”
Claudian
The myth of King Midas is at least 2,500 years old: the story narrates how the gods rewarded King Midas after he had provided hospitality to the satyr Silenus. Midas famously wished for everything he touched to turn into gold.
The moral of the story is clear. Wealth (and the power to increase it) does not bring happiness — indeed, it can be destructive. Yet, all these thousands of years later, the lust for wealth and money is as strong as ever.
So where did money come from? Who invented it? How did it spread?
Barter
In the broadest sense, money has always existed. As long as people have been able to assign value to objects, some things have been more prized than others, and therefore, more valuable.
Ultimately, money is simply a means of exchange, an abstraction of value. Before the…
