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英语四级听力美文第70篇:Money
In the earliest stages of man’s development he had no more need of money than animals have. He was content with very simple forms of shelter from natural materials around him. he madehis own rough tools and weapons.As he became more civilized, however, he began to wantbetter shelter, more efficient tools and weapons, and more comfortable clothing than could beprovided by the work of his own unskilled hands. For these things he had to turn to the skilledpeople such as smiths and carpenters who were springing up everywhere. It was then that thequestion of payment arose.
At first he got what he wanted by a simple process of exchange. The smith who had not thetime to look after land or cattle was glad to take meat or grain from the farmer in exchangefor an axe or a plough. But as more and more goods which had no fixed exchange value cameon the market, exchange became too complicated to be satisfactory. Another problem arosewhen those who made things wanted to get stocks of wood leather, or iron, but had nothing tooffer in exchange until their finished goods were ready.
Thus the difficulties of exchange led by degrees to the invention of money. In some countries, easily handled things like seeds or shells were given a certain value and the farmer, instead ofpaying the smith for a new axe by giving him some meat or grain, gave him so many shells. Ifthe smith had any shells left when he had bought his food, he could get stocks of the rawmaterials of his trade. In some countries quite large things such as cows or camels or even bigflat stones were used for trade. Later, pieces of metal, bearing values according to the rarity ofthe metal and the size of the pieces, or coins were used. Money as we know it had arrived.
