Multiple choice

The passage records

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

 

The history of money and coins takes us back to when man first felt the need to exchange goods and services. Early palaeolithic man lived by hunting and fishing, sharing the flesh or fish obtained by the members of a group, each a self-sufficient unit in clash or conflict with neighbouring groups, from whom things of value could be had only through robbery or violence. With more peaceful forms of contact, trade began as simple barter of commodities; and gradually, instead of jealously guarding their resources, men began to go in search of products of other tribes and regions.


In India a form of barter of goods and services survived till recently in its jajmani system, where services rendered by members of hereditary castes of potters, carpenters, masons, weavers of goods, barbers, washer men, weavers, cooks, pundits and astrologers were traditionally paid for in kind—gram, oil, raw sugar, dairy products etc.But barter had its limitations: there had to be a simultaneous need to buy and sell and there had to be some standards of value. It therefore gave way, as the market place developed and widened choices, to a more precise way of using some durable products of intrinsic value. A seller could accept in exchange a product, which although he did not need to buy then, or not at all, could be used as a store of value and medium of exchange in the future.

Limestone money was in use in the Yap Islands till after the Second World War. Not cheap by current standards, a stone ‘a foot in diameter cost about seventy-five US dollars. A stone man-high was worth many villages and plantations, and a stone two-men high was beyond price’, according to William Price. He adds, ‘our experience in trying to make United States dollars legal tender on Yap is somewhat humbling. Yesterday it was the Japanese; today it is the Americans; tomorrow it could be somebody else.

Shells, particularly cowries, remained in universal use in Asia, China, Africa and Europe till not so long ago. In the Punjab, till the late 1920s, cowries valued at much less than a pice (sixty-four to a rupee) were sold by old women in markets from heaps piled in front of them as a subsidiary currency for marginal adjustment of prices. The cowry shell had a special value for rituals and ceremonies, for warding off the evil eye because of its resemblance to an eye, and a as a symbol of fertility and reproduction for its shape.

 

 

  1. historical events that led to creation of the present-day money

  2. pictorial events of the past economic activities knitting people together

  3. aspirations of heterogeneous people getting together to form trading bonds

  4. the necessity of having to evolve a system of payment that met the needs of all traders

  5. the importance of peace for letting evolve a monetary system that was acceptable to all and sundry
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A Correct answer
Explanation

(1) It is the history of money that is central to the passage. While discussing history, it is natural that important historical events would also be alluded to. All the matters covered under (2), (3), (4) and (5) are part of the same history; (1) covers them all and there is no need to look at individual events. (2) Any worthwhile discussion of history will include all those aspects that contributed to something that is the subject matter of discussion. Trading activities constitute an important ingredient of what led to creation of money. (3) There is no gainsaying the fact that ultimately it is the aspirations of the concerned people that come to fore and take final shape. As people from different parts of the world wanted a solution to the vexing question of settling receipt and payment issues, they came together to give themselves durable money. (4) What gelled people together on the issue was the necessity of having to evolve a system that met the bartering needs of all. (5) Peace is always a very important ingredient for a society on the ascendancy whether on trading matters or on any other matter.

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