32 Spirituality & Mental Health
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“The history of money is all about wellbeing, and I don’t just mean having enough of it to live well. Money itself— i.e., having a medium of exchange that represents value we all agree on—makes life so much easier,”
By Sheryl Nance Nash
T
he history of finance is as old as life itself. It has perpetually been a vital aspect of civilization, whether at a provincial or international level.
Finance originated in the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE) and proceeded through Roman Egypt (30 BCE-646 CE). For most of its archives, ancient Egypt's and Mesopotamian economy operated on a barter system without cash. “It was not until the Persian Invasion of 525 BCE that a cash economy was instituted in the country. Before this, finance flourished through an exchange of goods and services based on a standard of value both parties considered fair,” says history buff and financial expert David Morneau, who is also CEO of the marketing firm inBeat Agency. He says that by the period of the First Dynasty, international finance and economic systems had been inaugurated within the regions of the Levant, Libya, and Nubia. Egypt had a negotiating colony in Canaan, a number in Syria, and even more in Nubia. The overland trade route through the Wadi Hammamat wound from the Nile to the Red Sea, the goods packed and tied to the backs of donkeys.
