2. When trade relations were just
emerging, people used anything
as money: rocks, shells, sugar,
flour, clothes, slaves, tools,
leather and fur, precious metals
and even teeth.
The first money

3. Even before our era churches and
monasteries all over the world took a part
of banking functions. In ancient Babylon,
there were "business houses", the
great-grandfathers of modern banks.
The first currency exchange

4. In the Middle Ages, there were
moneychangers in Europe - such
a man-bank was great on coins
of the different states and
exchanged them in the right way.

5. In 1867 in Paris the system of the
gold standard was adopted: a
unit of currency was equivalent
to a certain amount of gold.
Exchange rates were
determined by the gold
content of each
currency.
Gold Standard

6. Since the price of gold was
not revised, the rates were
remaining fixed for many years.
However, political and economic
crises of the First World War
made it impossible to maintain
the gold standard.

7. The USA had the largest reserves of gold, so the dollar was firmly
attached to gold and other currencies - to the US dollar. The rapid
development of the Western Europe economy in the 60s. It has led to an
international currency crisis. US gold reserves were not enough to convert
foreign currency. The Bretton Woods system was becoming obsolete.
The Bretton Woods system

8. In the 70 years, the dollar suffered difficulties - its purchasing power
was much lower than the gold equivalent one. Nixon canceled the
convertibility of the dollar into gold, countries were gradually moving
to floating rates. Exchange rate depended on supply and demand. In
1976 the Jamaican monetary system was formed - the currencies
were no longer attached to the US dollar and became freely
convertible. In 1977, the turnover of funds on the foreign exchange
market was 5.
The Jamaican system of floating rates

9. The new monetary system allowed to make foreign exchange
transactions freely. In the late 90s Forex trading moved to the Internet,
the software for the trading occurred. When Forex appeared, its daily
turnover was 5 billion dollars per day, and in 2010 it exceed 4 trillion.
Forex today