评论
打印
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?
亚里士多德，希腊哲学家，在2000年前概括了钱的四种主要特质。它必须具有持久性、易于辨认、分割、携带。今天我们谈到钱的时候，要么想到扁平的圆形金属，我们称之为硬币，要么是印有花色的纸张。但是当今世界仍有一些地方硬币和纸钱毫无用处。它们买不到任何东西，如果游客没有当地特殊的“钱”来交换食物，他们就会挨饿。
对一些外界商人很难接触到的隔绝人群而言，商业通常意味着以物易物。他们会直接交换货物。这种简单的贸易不需要钱，但是有一些东西是人人渴望、人人能用的，比如盐、面粉、装饰贝壳，或者是用来制作工具和船舶的铁和铜。
今天，这些东西——盐、贝壳或者金属——在与世隔绝的地方依然被当做钱用。
把盐当做钱用可能是一件很奇怪的事，不过在一些食物主要是蔬菜的国家，盐通常是必需品。在旧世界时期，海洋贝壳时不时被当做钱来用。它们主要是从印度洋马尔代夫群岛上的沙滩上采集而来，通过贸易抵达印度和中国。在非洲，宝贝螺的贸易从东部到西部横贯整个大洲。
金属，通过重量来决定价值，在世界上很多地方的出现时间都比硬币要早。很多国家依然在使用铁块、铁棒、铁环，而不是钱。金属要么用来交换货物，要么用来制成工具、武器或装饰品。中国早期的钱除了贝壳以外还有铜，通常是扁平的圆片，中间有一个孔，被称作“现钱”。这些东西最早出现在三四千年前，比东地中海最初的硬币还要早。
现在，虽然在偏远的一两个国家，人们依然保留着金钱更为直观的形式，为了用在诸如婚礼葬礼这样的正式场合上，但是硬币和纸钱几乎已经替代了所有此类金钱，很快就只能在博物馆里见到原始的金钱样品了。
问题22 根据亚里士多德，钱应该有哪些特质？
问题23 作者对隔绝人群之间的商业说了些什么？
问题24 为什么现在盐和贝壳依然被当做钱来用？
问题25 关于中国古代的“现钱”，我们知道些什么？
译文属可可原创，仅供学习和交流使用，未经允许不得转载
