2500 BC

COWRY SHELLS

CHINA

More than 3,000 years ago, during the Qin Dynasty, China led the ancient world by introducing shells as a medium of exchange and unit of account in commerce. The character for “shell” (贝) is an important component in Chinese and almost all things or acts concerning money have the component of the shell: fortune, poverty, goods, trade, businessman, tribute, greed, expense, compensation, ransom, expensive, noble, cheap, humble. Shell (贝) also gave rise to the term bao

bei, which means treasure.