After nearly thirty years of exchange, Liu Pijiang has become the richest trader in the Jiaoting tribe. He runs a fur workshop. Liu Pijiang’s fur coats can be exchanged for almost everything he wants in the tribe.
On a sunny afternoon, when Liu Pijiang was washing furs by the Moon River, he accidentally picked up a conch. This thing looks completely different from other clams, and he has never seen it before. It is like a trumpet in the hand, and you can hear a buzzing sound when you press your ears.
Liu Pijiang thought he picked up a treasure and he liked the conch very much. Later, he exchanged the conch for 10 stone of millet to Lao Zhang. Liu Pijiang promised that Lao Zhang could use the conch to exchange for three new fur coats at his fur workshop at any time.
Hu San is an idle person in the tribe. He is responsible for cleaning the grassland in front of the ancestral hall, and the people in the tribe take turns to take care of his three meals. By chance, Hu San found a lot of conches in the stream deep in the valley, so he took a conch to Liu Pijiang’s workshop every month to exchange for three fur coats.
Because Liu Pijiang liked conches, he took all of Hu San’s conches. Later, in addition to exchanging conches for fur coats, Hu San also went to Lao Zhang to exchange grain. Because Liu Pijiang liked conches, he could exchange for fur coats with him, and Lao Zhang also accepted conches. He also used conches to exchange firewood at Zhao Tianxi’s house, and Zhao Tianxi took the conches and went to the salt shop to exchange for salt.
Because Liu Pijiang liked conches, everyone in the tribe knew that they could take conches to Liu Pijiang’s workshop to exchange for fur coats, so everyone accepted conches in exchange for things in their homes.
Later, the leader of the tribe, Ouyang Buqin, also liked to put conches on the altar of his home, so he organized a monopoly on the issuance of conches and branded the tribe’s emblem on the conches. The combination of credit and authority makes it possible to establish a financial system.
Thus, money was created.