1 . Many of the world’s greatest inventions are born in China. It was the first country to produce paper money. Before the invention of paper money and coins, people used many different kinds of things for buying and selling. During that time, for example, buying a chicken might cost several potatoes.     1    

    2     In 1200 BC, people in China began to use shells as money. Usually the shells used as money were very small, which made it easier for people to carry money over long distances, and allowed for 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.     3    

The next development was in 1000 BC, when China started making shells out of bronze and copper.     4     The very first coins often had holes in them so that people could tie them together. By 500 BC, metal coins had begun to appear in countries like Persia and Greece, and later in the Roman Empire.

About 1000 years later, leather was used as money in China, and in 806 AD, the first paper banknotes were produced by the Chinese people with the rapid increase of trade.     5    .