Many versions say where the word money comes from, some say money comes from the word "wang", which means a means a means a means of payment made of gold.
There is also a mention that the word "wang" was taken from the name of a Chinese financial expert, Wang An Shi, where Chinese gold money once entered the archipelago and was used as a medium of exchange.
In addition, the word "wang" is said to come from the word "daluwang" which means paper made from tree bark, this is far from the meaning of money and has nothing to do with the word money itself, but it is mentioned so because the first money of the Republic of Indonesia was ORI (Oeang Republik Indonesia) made from "daluwang".
In the everyday language of Indonesians, the word money is also sometimes called "duit", the word "duit" comes from Dutch which means coins made of silver, Indonesians will also in conversation add the word silver to mention money whose nominal is small, such as "one hundred silver" for example.
Gold and silver have long been used by the majority of the world's population, including in the archipelago, as a means of payment for fair transactions.
But then why is gold not money anymore?, here are five things that make gold disappear in circulation and no longer be money.
#1 Colonization
The Moluccan War led by Pattimura, a cleric from the Sahulau sultanate whose real name was Ahmad Lussy (Pattimura clan), one of the causes of the outbreak of the Moluccan war was the coercion from the Dutch to the Moluccans to hand over their spice crops in exchange for paper issued by the Dutch, even though payment should have been made using gold.
The colonization made economic injustice, the colonizer got a lot of gold from the colony through trade, while the colonized people lost their gold, and had to receive papers, if they did not want to accept, they would be fought.
#2 The Emergence of Banks
The large number of currencies circulated by the kingdom in Europe, was the beginning of the establishment of banks, which in Italian banque means sitting behind a desk, because its business activities are just sitting waiting for people who want to exchange their coins for other royal coins, from each exchange charged a commission fee as an exchange service, in Muamalah obviously this is called riba sale and purchase (bai').
In its development, banks offer deposit services in exchange for coins as a puller (interest) / bank interest, in Muamalah it is clear that this is riba dayn included in the category of riba fadhl.
Then bank notes were created, namely debt securities (receipts / receipts) or promises notes (proof of payment promises) given by banks to their deposit customers who present the promise of coin payments to paper holders in accordance with the amount stated on the paper.
At this point many people forget that the real treasure is in the coin, not in the paper or bank notes.
#3 World War
The United States in the first world war built its economy through military industry, by exporting it along with other goods to Europe. Industrial workers are paid with the Fed's (federal reserve) banknotes, while America itself gets gold from its exports to Europe.
As more funds were needed to buy armaments and finance the war, gold reserves in Europe became increasingly depleted, the move taken was to release the gold standard that had been tied to paper money, so that the printing of paper money could be done as much as possible to finance the war.
The United States again repeated the way as in the first world war, all commodities related to the war were again exported to Europe with payments using only gold. With the occurrence of these two world wars, the United States Fed then became the largest gold owner worldwide.
#4 Bretton Woods
After successfully controlling world gold, the United States freely convened a meeting of 44 countries in Bretton Woods in 1944 to create a new economic system after the second world war, especially regarding the system of exchange rates and international payments.
The system created placed the dollar printed by the Fed as a fixed currency at the international level, by tying every 35 dollars to an ounce of gold, then the other currency tied it to the dollar
All countries must then link their currencies to the dollar in order to engage in international trade. Consequently then all countries must have dollars, which are referred to as foreign exchange reserves. These dollars are obtained through payments by exporting domestic commodities, including gold.
#5 Vietnam War
During the Vietnam war the Fed continuously printed more paper money than it could have redeemed for gold, the amount of which was in accordance with the system agreed at Bretton Woods.
Countries with which America had economic ties then cashed out their operations, exchanging their dollars, in hopes of salvaging their gold and not taking part in the crisis that the United States would experience due to the Vietnam war.
Through President Richard Nixon in 1971 the United States unilaterally stopped the implementation of the Bretton Woods system, thus eliminating gold from its exchange for dollars, to protect the interests of the United States.
Closing
Since President Richard Nixon's announcement, gold has come to an end as the standard of money altogether around the world.
Wallahu a'lam bishawab