Money - the root of global trade

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 2,0, Vienna University of Economics and Business , course: Seminar Business English, language: English, abstract: The transition from barter economic systems to early monetary economies in Europe took place at around 700 BC. Ancient Greece (1000 BC – 323 BC) and afterwards the Roman Republic (509 BC – 44/27 BC) successfully established simple coinage systems with currencies like the denarius that already managed to fulfil the three modern economic functions that distinguish money from all other assets. In line with an ancient “free-market”-regulatory system during the early years of the Roman Empire (44/27 BC – 476 AD) the denarius subsequently paved the way for a tremendous enlargement of foreign trade, thus marking off the beginning of modern “free” trade. On the other hand, the Romans were the first who suffered from the negative aspects and challenges of a market economy: since modern principles as social and income justice as well as price stability were fully disregarded, the Romans were facing financial inequality, hyperinflation , and cultural erosion of their “way of living”. Their fiscal and monetary policy harshly failed to finance long-term public expenditure, in particular military expenditures and imperial bribes. This imperfect competitive system is one of the main reasons for the disastrous collapse of the (Western) Roman Empire. However, this erroneous trend cannot only be assessed for ancient market systems: inflation during the years 1914-1923 in the German Reich and Weimar Republic also showed negative economical implications of hyperinflation including intense individual suffering and social impairment. Accompanied by the Black Tuesday of 1929 the German inflation finally fuelled political extremist fractions and amplified distrust towards economic institutions and legitimate democratic authorities.