China has been the birthplace of many of the world’s greatest inventions. It was, for example, the first country to produce paper money. Before the invention of paper money and coin, people used many different kinds of things for buying and selling. 【小题1】 This exchange of goods and services for other goods and services is called bartering (以货换货).

【小题2】 In 1200 BC, people in China began to use shells as money. Usually the shells used as money were very small. This made it easier for people to carry money over long distances, and allowed trade to develop between different parts of the country.

In the years which followed this invention, many other countries around the world began to do the same. 【小题3】 The next development was in 1000 BC, when China started making bronze and copper shells. It wasn’t long before the Chinese made round coins out of metal. 【小题4】 By 500 BC, metal coins had begun to appear in countries like Persia and Greece, and later in the Roman Empire.

About 1,000 years later, leather was used as money in China, and in 806 AD, the first banknotes were produced by the Chinese people. 【小题5】