Worksheets › Class 7 › From Barter to Money › Cheat sheet
Class 7 From Barter to Money: cheat sheet
CBSE Social Science. Barter and its problems, the functions of money, coins from panas to annas, paper money, the ₹ symbol and digital payments.
Key ideas
- Barter is exchanging goods or services directly, without money.
- Barter needs a double coincidence of wants: each person must have exactly what the other wants.
- Barter also fails because some goods cannot be divided (an ox) or stored for long (wheat).
- Before coins, people used cowrie shells, salt, cattle, tea and cloth as money.
- Ancient Indian coins (karshapanas or panas) were of gold, silver or copper, with punched symbols called rupas.
- Roman gold coins found in Tamil Nadu and Kerala show strong trade with the Roman world.
- Digital money is paid by card, net banking or UPI; a QR code holds the receiver’s account details.
Remember
| Functions of money | medium of exchange, store of value, measure of value, standard of deferred payment |
| Old rupee | 1 rupee = 16 annas |
| Official paper money in India | from 1861 |
| ₹ symbol | adopted 2010; designed by Udaya Kumar |
| UPI | in use from 2016 |
| Issues currency | the Reserve Bank of India |
| Barter today | the Junbeel Mela in Assam |
Watch out
- Thinking barter has no problems: wants must match, and goods may not divide or keep.
- Using 100 annas to the rupee: there were 16.
- Saying any bank can print money: only the Reserve Bank of India issues currency.
Worked example
The Arthashastra says a yearly salary of 60 panas could be replaced by about 3 kg of grain a day. (a) How many panas would 16 years of salary be? (b) How much grain is that, at 1,095 kg a year? (c) The fine for not helping a neighbour was 100 panas. What does that show?
Working: 60 × 16; 1,095 × 16
Answer: (a) 960 panas (b) 17,520 kg (c) Helping others was valued so highly that refusing cost more than a year’s salary.
Practise From Barter to Money
Revise with this page, then practise: every From Barter to Money sheet in the app is new, with an answer key and working.
Coming soon for Android and iPhone.