NCERT Solutions Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 11: From Barter to
Money

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond (Part I)

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

229 – 246 17 33 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 30 pages

Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND (PART I)

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 11: From Barter to Money
The first chapter of the theme Economic Life Around Us traces how exchange grew from the barter system —
goods swapped directly for goods — to money in its many forms: cowries, punch-marked kārṣhāpaṇas, paper
currency and today's digital payments.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part I) (Class 229 – 246
7)

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

17 33

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 229
Chapter opener · Theme E: Economic Life Around Us

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 How did exchange take place before money?

Before money existed, people exchanged goods and services directly for other goods and
services. This system is called the barter system.
It worked like this: a person who had a surplus of one thing looked for another person who had
a surplus of what the first person needed, and the two swapped. The book's classroom example
is the simplest one — you have a spare eraser and need a pencil; your classmate has a spare
pencil and needs an eraser; you swap, and both needs are met.
People bartered whatever was useful and valued in their region:

Cowrie shells — small, countable and hard to fake
Salt, tea, tobacco — always in demand
Cloth and seeds
Cattle — cows, goats, horses, sheep

Elsewhere in the world people used still stranger things — giant Rai stone discs on Yap Island in
Micronesia, the Aztec copper Tajadero (a chopping-knife shape) in Central Mexico, and Tevau red-
feather coils on the Solomon Islands.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it happens: in a small village where everybody grows or makes something,
direct swapping is enough. Barter only breaks down when trade grows large and
travels far — and that is exactly when money appears.

Q2 Why did money come into existence?

Money came into existence because barter could not keep up once more kinds of goods were
being exchanged over longer distances. As the book puts it, “necessity is the mother of
invention.”
Barter has five specific weaknesses, all of which money removes:

PROBLEM WITH WHAT GOES WRONG HOW MONEY FIXES IT
BARTER

Double coincidence of You must find someone who wants your Sell the ox to anyone for money,
wants ox and has the shoes you want then buy shoes from anyone

No common standard How many bags of wheat equal one Every good carries a price in the
measure of value sweater? Nobody can say same unit

Divisibility You cannot exchange a part of an ox for a Money splits into ₹1, ₹2, ₹5, ₹10 …
sweater

Portability Taking an ox or sacks of wheat Notes and coins fit in a pocket
everywhere is hard

Durability Stored wheat rots or is eaten by rats Money keeps its value over time

So money became a common medium of exchange — a single thing everybody accepts. Once
enough people used it for buying and selling, it became the accepted method of payment.

Q3 How has money transformed into various forms over time?

Money in India has moved through five broad stages, shown in the timeline of Fig. 11.10.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ROUGHLY WHEN FORM OF MONEY WHAT IT WAS

6000 BCE Barter Goods swapped straight for goods

From about 1000 BCE Cowrie Shells used as counted money

From about 600 BCE Metal coinage Iron, silver, gold and copper coins — the kārṣhāpaṇas

1861 Official paper money Government-issued currency notes

1980 Digital money Debit cards and credit cards

2016 UPI Unified Payments Interface — pay by phone

The direction of change is clear: money has become steadily lighter, more divisible and easier
to move. Shells and cattle gave way to metal, metal to paper, and paper to something you
cannot touch at all.

Did you know? The two ends of that timeline can sit side by side. A fruit-seller like
Krishnappa in the chapter keeps a printed QR code next to his cart — the money
never takes any physical form; it simply moves from one bank account to another.

In-text Questions — Page 229
Chapter opening text

Q1 In the theme “Tapestry of the Past”, you read about the crops that people grew,
such as food grains or goods they made like carnelian beads. How do you think they
exchanged these goods for things that they needed?

They exchanged them directly, good for good — by barter. There were no coins and no notes,
so a farmer with surplus grain simply found a bead-maker who wanted grain, and the two
agreed on how much grain a string of carnelian beads was worth.
The chapter's opening picture (Fig. 11.1) shows exactly this: two people pouring grain from a
basket into each other's sacks in a field.
Three things made such exchanges possible in the past:

Surplus. A family grew or made more than it needed, so it had something to give away.
Fairs and markets. People gathered at one place on fixed days, which made it easier to find
a matching partner.
Commonly accepted goods. Things like grain, cattle, salt and cowrie shells were wanted by
almost everyone, so they were easy to trade on.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
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LET’S EXPLORE — Page 231
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Q1 Imagine that you are a farmer and that people use a barter system where you live.

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Step 1 — Find someone who actually needs an ox.
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Step 2 — Since one pair of shoes is nowhere near the value of an ox, swap the ox for several

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Step 4 — Carry the remaining wheat to a second person for the sweater.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 What difficulties are you likely to face?

Every step of that chain has a difficulty built into it.

DIFFICULTY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN THE FARMER'S STORY

Finding a match You must first find a person who wants an ox at all

Unequal value An ox for one pair of shoes is not a fair swap

A long chain Ox → wheat → shoes, sweater, medicines: three separate deals with three people

Bargaining every time A fresh discussion at each stall about how much wheat equals the item

Transport Sacks of wheat must be carried to several places

Storage Leftover wheat must be kept safe — and it may rot or be eaten by rats

Carrying it again Next time you want something, out come the sacks once more

In the language the chapter uses a page later, these are the problems of the double coincidence
of wants, no common standard measure of value, divisibility, portability and durability.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 232
Why Do we Need Money?

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 What are the different types of difficulties you encountered in the situation above?

Five distinct kinds of difficulty, each of which the chapter later gives a name.

1. Matching two sets of wants. The person who has shoes must also want exactly what you
are offering. This is the double coincidence of wants.
2. Deciding a fair rate. Is a sweater worth two bags of wheat or five? There is no agreed
answer, because there is no common standard measure of value.
3. Splitting the goods. An ox cannot be cut into a shoe-sized portion — the problem of
divisibility.
4. Moving the goods. An ox and sacks of wheat must be led or carried from place to place —
the problem of portability.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5. Keeping the goods. Wheat rots or is eaten by rats, so wealth cannot be stored — the
problem of durability.

On top of these come the plain costs of time and effort: several journeys, several rounds of
bargaining, and a safe store to build.

Why it happens: each difficulty comes from the same root — in barter, the thing
being exchanged has to do two jobs at once. It has to be useful in itself and serve as
payment. Money separates the two jobs, and every difficulty dissolves.

In-text Questions — Page 232
Why Do we Need Money?

Q1 In the farmer’s story, imagine he finds someone who is willing to trade a pair of
new shoes, a sweater, and medicines — all in exchange for his ox. Do you think it
would be easy to come across such a situation?

No — such a situation would be very rare. It asks for a great deal of luck all at once.
Three separate conditions would have to be true of the same person on the same day:

They must own shoes, a sweater and medicines — three quite different trades in one pair of
hands.
They must actually want an ox, and want it badly enough to give up all three.
Both sides must agree that one ox is a fair price for the whole bundle.

In real life the shoes come from a cobbler, the sweater from a weaver and the medicines from a
healer. Each of them wants something different, and probably none of them needs an ox. That is
why the farmer in the story ends up going through a chain of exchanges instead.

Why it happens: this is the double coincidence of wants in its hardest form. A single
coincidence is already unlikely; here the farmer needs three coincidences to line up
together.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 233

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why Do we Need Money?

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 What are the instances of double coincidence of wants in the above example?

Every single swap in the farmer's chain needs a double coincidence of wants. There are four of
them in the example.

# THE EXCHANGE WHAT MUST COINCIDE

1 Ox → bags of wheat The wheat-owner must want an ox, and the farmer must want wheat

2 Wheat → shoes The cobbler must want wheat, and the farmer must want those shoes

3 Wheat → sweater The sweater-seller must want wheat, and the farmer must want the sweater

4 Wheat → medicines The medicine-seller must want wheat, and the farmer must want the medicines

And the imagined easy case on page 232 — one person offering shoes, sweater and medicines
together for the ox — would be a fifth, and by far the least likely, instance.

Check it yourself: if the cobbler had wanted milk instead of wheat, the farmer
would have had to insert yet another exchange (wheat → milk → shoes). Every
mismatch adds a link to the chain.

Q2 In the situation given above, what are the cases where you could encounter the
lack of a common standard measure of value?

Wherever the two sides have to argue about the rate, there is no common standard measure
of value. In the farmer's story that happens at every deal.

Ox for wheat. How many bags of wheat is one ox worth — ten, twenty, thirty? Nothing
settles it except bargaining.
Wheat for shoes. The book says plainly that “a discussion would take place to arrive at the
fair amount of wheat that you could exchange for shoes”.
Wheat for the sweater. The same argument all over again with a different person.
Wheat for the medicines. And again with a third person — who may value wheat quite
differently from the first two.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Ox for shoes directly. Swapping an ox for one pair of shoes “would hardly be a fair
exchange” — but with no common unit, neither side can prove how unfair it is.

Why it happens: without a shared unit, value is only an opinion. The cobbler may
think wheat is plentiful and cheap; the farmer, who worked all season for it, thinks it
is precious. If either feels the exchange is disadvantageous, the deal simply
collapses. Money ends the argument by giving every good a price in the same unit.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 234
Why Do we Need Money?

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 What are the different ways in which money would make the above situation easier
for the farmer?

Money would replace the farmer's whole chain of swaps with one sale and three purchases.

With barter: ox → wheat → shoes, and → sweater, and → medicines (4 exchanges, 3

journeys with sacks)

With money: ox → ₹ → shoes, sweater, medicines (1 sale, then simple buying)

It helps in five distinct ways, one for each weakness of barter:

FUNCTION OF WHAT IT DOES FOR THE FARMER
MONEY

Medium of exchange He sells the ox to anyone who wants it and buys from anyone who sells shoes — no
double coincidence of wants needed

Common measure of Shoes, sweater and medicines all carry a price in rupees, so he can compare them and
value no bargaining battle is needed

Divisibility The ox becomes a sum of money that can be split exactly — some for shoes, some for
the sweater, the rest for medicines

Portability Notes and coins go in his pocket; no sacks to haul from village to village

Store of value Whatever is left over keeps its value. It will not rot and rats will not eat it, so he can
spend it months later

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
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Money also lets him buy today and settle later, because it is accepted as a standard of deferred
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LET’S

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Barter today · after the Junbeel Mela, book exchange and utensils-for-clothes boxes

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LET’S EXPLORE
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The illustrations above show you some of the ways in which people practise barter
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Yes — barter has not disappeared. It survives wherever people trust each other or where cash is

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Bartan-wale / old clothes for utensils. A vendor comes door to door and gives steel
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utensils in return for used clothes — exactly the practice in Fig. 11.7.

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Kabaadiwala exchanges. Old newspapers and scrap traded for buckets, mugs or plastic
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Book and toy swaps in schools and housing societies, like the book exchange club in Fig.
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Village-level help. A farmer lends his bullocks or tractor for a day's ploughing and receives a
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Skill for skill. A neighbour teaches your brother mathematics while your mother stitches
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Fairs. The Junbeel Mela in Morigaon district, Assam is the best-known surviving barter fair —

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hill people bring roots, vegetables, fruit, herbs and spices and exchange them with plains
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people for rice cakes.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT PEOPLE LIKE WHAT PEOPLE FIND HARD

No cash needed, so it works even when Deciding the rate — how many old sarees make one bucket?
money is short

Useless things at home become useful things Long bargaining; either side may feel cheated afterwards

It builds friendship and trust between The vendor may not come again for months — you cannot
neighbours buy when you want

Nothing is wasted: cloth is resold, No fixed prices means no way to compare two vendors'
repurposed or recycled offers

At a fair like Junbeel it becomes a social and Goods must be carried to the place of exchange
cultural event

Why it happens: the pleasant experiences come from barter being personal; the
difficult ones come from it having no common standard measure of value. Both sides
of the experience are visible in a single doorstep exchange.

Sample answer: “In my colony a vendor calls out for old clothes twice a month. My mother gave
four old shirts and two sarees and received one steel bucket and two glasses. She said the deal
felt fair because the utensils were of good quality, but she also said she had to argue for ten
minutes, and that with money she would simply have known the price.”

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 237
Basic Functions of Money

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Suppose you need to buy a book. You have ₹50 in your pocket. You visit the
bookshop in your neighbourhood where the shopkeeper tells you that the book is
worth ₹100. What options do you have to buy the book today?

The gap has to be closed somehow.

Price of the book = ₹100

Money in my pocket = ₹50

Shortfall = ₹100 − ₹50 = ₹50

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The realistic options are:

1. Pay ₹50 now and the remaining ₹50 later — if the shopkeeper agrees. This is a deferred
payment.
2. Borrow ₹50 from a parent, an elder sibling or a friend and pay the full amount today.
3. Ask the shopkeeper to keep the book aside and come back tomorrow with the balance.
4. Buy a cheaper book today that costs ₹50 or less.
5. Wait and save the other ₹50 out of pocket money before buying.
6. Pay digitally — if there is money in a family bank account, a UPI transfer settles the ₹100 at
once.

Tip: notice that option 1 is only possible because money exists. Under barter you
could not hand over “half an ox now and half an ox next month”.

Q2 Will you request the shopkeeper to allow you to make the rest of the payment
later?

Yes, that is a reasonable thing to ask — and the chapter uses this very request to introduce an
important idea.
The request works only if two conditions hold:

Trust. A neighbourhood shopkeeper who knows my family is likely to agree; a stranger in a
big store will not.
A promise I can keep. I must be sure I will actually have ₹50 by the date I name, and I must
go back and pay on that date.

If he agrees, I take the book home today and pay ₹50 later. The shopkeeper accepts a promise of
money in place of money itself.

Why it happens: the fact that money is accepted as a way of making payments later
makes money a standard of deferred payment — the fourth basic function of money,
alongside medium of exchange, measure of value and store of value. It works
because everybody is confident that ₹50 will still buy roughly the same amount next
month.

Did you know? Shopkeepers in India have kept such credit in a khata or bahi — a
running account book — for centuries. Buying on credit and settling at the end of
the month is deferred payment in daily life.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 238
The Journey of Money · Fig. 11.10

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Look at the timeline given below. What are the changes in money that you observe?

Reading Fig. 11.10 from left to right, money changes six times — and each change makes it
easier to use.

DATE ON THE FORM OF MONEY WHAT CHANGED
TIMELINE

6000 BCE Barter Goods exchanged straight for goods — no
money at all

1000 BCE onward Cowrie A shell becomes money: countable, light, hard
to imitate

600 BCE onward Metal coinage — iron, silver, Money now carries a stamped, guaranteed
gold, copper value

1861 Official paper money Value is separated from the material; paper is
far lighter than metal

1980 Digital money — debit and Money moves without being carried
credit cards

2016 UPI A phone and a QR code are enough; the money
is purely electronic

Four patterns stand out:

From bulky to weightless. Cattle and grain → shells → metal → paper → nothing you can
hold.
From natural to man-made. A shell is found; a coin is minted; a UPI payment is created by
software.
From private to official. Anybody could barter; kings minted coins; today only the RBI may
issue currency.
The pace speeds up. Barter to coins took thousands of years; cards to UPI took about 36.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check it yourself: the timeline does not say old forms died out. Cowries were still
used in parts of India long after coins appeared, and coins, notes and UPI are all in
use together today.

In-text Questions — Page 239
Coinage

Q1 Does this word sound familiar to a word we use for money today in India?

Yes. The word in question is rūpa — the symbol punched on to ancient coins — and it is the
ancestor of the word we use every day: rupee (rupaya).

rūpa (a punched symbol / form) → rūpya (stamped silver) → rupaya / rupee

The other coin word in the same paragraph has survived too. The ancient coins were called
kārṣhāpaṇas or paṇas, and:

Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam still say paṇaṁ for money;
Kannada says haṇa.

Why it happens: words for money outlive the money itself. The coins vanished
centuries ago, but because people kept using the name in daily speech, it passed
from one generation of currency to the next.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 239
Coinage · Fig. 11.12

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 The coins shown in Fig. 11.12 were found during excavations in Pudukkottai in Tamil
Nadu. Their heads embossed are those of Roman kings. What conclusions can we
draw from such a finding?

Roman gold coins lying in the soil of Tamil Nadu are hard evidence of long-distance trade
between southern India and the Roman world.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
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Four conclusions follow from the find:
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textiles, beads, pearls) than they were buying

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LET’S EXPLORE
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Coinage today · group project

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Q1 Organise yourselves into groups

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collect old coins from family
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

SL. DENOMINATION YEAR METAL / SHAPE OBVERSE REVERSE SCRIPT /
COLOUR & SIZE (HEAD) (TAIL) LANGUAGE

1 1 quarter anna 1918 Copper, Round, Ruler's “ONE English +
brown thick head QUARTER Urdu
ANNA INDIA”

2 1 paisa 1945 Bronze Round “INDIA” Value English +
with a Urdu
hole

3 ₹1 2002 Steel, Round Ashoka Value + grain Hindi +
silvery Lion motif English
Capital

4 ₹20 2021 Bimetallic Twelve- Lion 75th Year of Hindi +
commemorative sided Capital Independence English
emblem

What good guesses look like. A guess must be tied to something you actually saw:

“The oldest coins carry only English and Urdu, the newer ones Hindi and English — so the
languages on money changed after Independence.”
“Older coins are heavier and made of copper or bronze; today's are light steel — so cheaper
metals replaced costly ones.”
“All modern coins carry the Ashoka Lion Capital — so one national authority, the RBI, now
issues them all, unlike the many kingdoms of ancient times.”
“The ₹20 coin of 2021 shows the 75-years-of-Independence emblem — so special coins are
minted to mark national events.”

How to test whether the guesses are true. A guess becomes knowledge only when it is
checked:

1. Compare with the coin photographs in the chapter (Fig. 11.13 and Fig. 11.14).
2. Check the official RBI and India Government Mint coin lists in the school library or on their
websites.
3. Visit or write to a local museum or a numismatics (coin-study) club.
4. Interview grandparents about what each coin could buy in their childhood.
5. Enlarge your sample — a pattern seen in 30 coins is far more reliable than one seen in 4.

Tip: a single odd coin proves nothing. Historians trust a pattern that repeats across
many finds — which is exactly why archaeologists count coins rather than admire
them one by one.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 241

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Paper Money

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 What do you think happened as coins began to be used for all types of exchanges,
whether to buy vegetables or to buy some land?

Coins worked beautifully for small purchases and badly for large ones, so the number of coins
needed exploded.

A bunch of spinach ≈ a few small coins — easy

A piece of land ≈ thousands of coins — sacks of metal

So: the bigger the deal, the heavier the payment

What followed:

Big payments had to be carried in bags or on carts, sometimes with guards.
Counting a large payment took a long time, and every coin had to be checked for weight and
purity.
Traders travelling between kingdoms had to carry heavy loads over long distances.
Storing wealth at home meant storing a great mass of metal.

The chapter's own summary: “it became difficult to carry a large number of coins. Storing the
coins also became a problem.” That search for something better ended in paper money.

Q2 What problems could have come up?

Four clear problems, and they are the old barter problems returning in a new shape.

PROBLEM WHAT IT MEANT IN PRACTICE

Portability A large sum in coins is heavy and bulky — hard to carry to a market or across a kingdom

Storage Keeping a fortune in metal at home needs space and a strong-room

Safety Visible sacks of metal attract thieves on the road

Counting and testing Thousands of coins must be counted, weighed and checked for fakes or clipped edges

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The answer was to write the value on light paper instead of carrying the metal. Paper money
was first used in China and was introduced in India in the late 18th century; from then on
coins served the smaller denominations and paper currency the larger ones.

Why it happens: money must be both valuable and convenient. Metal gave value
but cost convenience. Paper gives up the value of the material entirely and relies
instead on trust in the issuer — which is why today only the RBI may issue it.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 242
Paper Money · Fig. 11.16 and Fig. 11.17

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Look at a 50 and a 100-rupee note. Can you identify the motifs depicting India’s
cultural heritage on the reverse side of the notes? Find out more about them.

Both motifs are UNESCO World Heritage monuments, and both are printed on the reverse
(back) of the note.

NOTE MOTIF ON WHERE IT IS WHO BUILT IT, AND WHAT TO KNOW
THE REVERSE

₹50 The Stone Hampi, A shrine carved as a chariot in the Vittala temple
Chariot of Vijayanagara complex, built under the Vijayanagara rulers in the
Hampi district, Karnataka 16th century. Hampi was the capital of the
Vijayanagara Empire.

₹100 Rani ki Vav — Patan, on the An inverted, seven-storeyed stepwell built in the
“the Queen's Saraswati river, 11th century by Queen Udayamati in memory of
Stepwell” Gujarat King Bhima I of the Solanki dynasty; its walls carry
more than 500 major sculptures.

Other notes in the same series carry the same idea — the Sun Temple at Konark on the ₹10
note, the Ellora caves on the ₹20, the Sanchi Stupa on the ₹200, the Red Fort on the ₹500.

Why it happens: currency is the one printed object that reaches every person in the
country. Putting monuments on the reverse turns everyday money into a small,
portable lesson in India's cultural heritage.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: hold your own ₹50 note beside Fig. 11.16 in the book. Read the words printed
under the picture — the note names the monument for you.

Q2 Feel the surface of the notes. What special features of currency notes help visually
impaired persons to identify the notes’ denominations?

Indian currency notes carry raised printing that can be felt with a fingertip, so the
denomination can be told by touch alone.

Intaglio (raised) printing. The Mahatma Gandhi portrait, the Ashoka Pillar emblem and the
RBI seal are printed so thickly that they stand above the paper surface.
Bleed lines. Groups of raised slanting lines at the left and right edges — different numbers
for different notes. For example ₹100 has 4 lines in each group and ₹500 has 5, so they can
be counted with a finger.
An identification mark. A raised geometric shape near the left edge, different for each
denomination — a triangle on the ₹500, a circle on the ₹200, and so on.
Different sizes. Each denomination is a different length and width, so notes can be
compared against one another or against a card.
Big, bold numerals and strongly contrasting colours help people with partial sight.

Did you know? The RBI has also released a mobile app, MANI (Mobile Aided Note
Identifier), which speaks the denomination aloud when the phone camera is pointed
at a note.

Why it happens: money is useless if a person cannot be sure what they are handing
over. Touch-based features let a visually impaired person pay and take change
independently, without having to trust a stranger's word.

In-text Questions — Page 243
New Forms of Money

Q1 Have you observed other people around you making or receiving payments without
using coins and notes?

Yes — cashless payment is now an everyday sight, and not only in big shops.

Page 18 of 30

as e
Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A fruit or vegetable seller with a printed QR code tied to his cart, exactly like Krishnappa in
co m
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An auto-rickshaw driver holding up a QR card at the end of a ride.

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Someone tapping or swiping a debit or credit card at a medical store or supermarket.
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a Friends splitting a bill by UPI on their phones in seconds.

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form, which is intangible: it cannot be touched

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it tells your bank exactly where to send the money, so a small seller needs
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school. The number will tell you how far digital money has reached in your own
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Questions and activities — Page 244
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End-of-chapter exercise
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QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

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how much of one thing equals how much of the other, and they swap. The chapter's example:

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m ase
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

IN INDIA AND AROUND EXAMPLES FROM THE CHAPTER
THE WORLD

Shells Cowrie shells

Food and stimulants Salt, tea, tobacco

Cloth and seeds Woven cloth, seed grain

Livestock Cows, goats, horses, sheep

Unusual regional money Rai stone discs (Yap Island, Micronesia); the Aztec copper Tajadero (Central
Mexico); Tevau red-feather coils (Solomon Islands)

Barter has not vanished. The Junbeel Mela in Morigaon district of Assam is still a three-day
barter fair, and old clothes are still exchanged for new utensils at people's doorsteps.

Q2 What were the limitations of the barter system?

Five limitations, and every one of them is a reason money was invented.

1. Double coincidence of wants. You must find a person who wants exactly what you are
offering and is offering exactly what you want. Such a match is rare.
2. No common standard measure of value. In what proportion should two goods be
exchanged? There is no agreed unit, so the value of one good cannot be compared with
another, and if either side feels the deal is disadvantageous the exchange fails.
3. Divisibility. You cannot exchange only a part of an ox for a sweater. Many valuable goods
cannot be split.
4. Portability. An ox — or a heap of wheat sacks — has to be taken everywhere you might
want to buy something.
5. Durability. Wealth held as grain cannot be stored for long; it rots or the rats get it. Value
cannot be saved for the future.

Why it happens: under barter one object must be both a useful good and a means
of payment. Because a useful good is bulky, perishable and wanted only by some
people, it makes a poor payment. Money is deliberately designed to do nothing
except be payment — and so it does that job perfectly.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 What were the salient features of ancient Indian coins?

The chapter gives six main features.

Precious metals. They were made from gold, silver and copper, or from alloys of these,
which made the coins strong.
Their names. They were called kārṣhāpaṇas or paṇas.
Punched symbols. They carried marks punched on to them called rūpas — very probably the
ancestor of the word rupee.
Royal control. The minting and issue of coins was controlled entirely by the rulers, so each
kingdom had its own coinage.
Two decorated faces. The obverse (head) and reverse (tail) carried different symbols and
motifs — animals, trees and hills, kings and queens, and deities. Chalukya coins of Kalyana
show a Varaha (an avatar of Viṣhṇu) on one side and a decorated three-tiered royal parasol
on the other; Chola silver coins (850–1279 CE) show the tiger emblem.
Wide acceptance. Over time the coins of powerful rulers were accepted well beyond their
own kingdoms, which made trade across regions — and across the sea — much easier.

Did you know? The word paṇa is still alive: paṇaṁ means money in Tamil, Telugu
and Malayalam, and haṇa in Kannada.

Q4 How has money as a medium of exchange transformed over time?

It has moved from things you can eat or wear, to metal, to paper, to nothing you can touch
at all.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

STAGE FORM WHAT MADE IT BETTER THAN
THE STAGE BEFORE

1. Barter (from about 6000 BCE) Cattle, grain, salt, —
cloth

2. Commodity money (from about 1000 Cowrie shells Light, countable, durable, hard to fake
BCE)

3. Metal coinage (from about 600 BCE) Iron, silver, gold and A stamped, guaranteed value; divisible
copper coins into denominations

4. Paper currency (India, from the late 18th Bank notes Far lighter than metal; large sums
century; official paper money 1861) become easy to carry and store

5. Digital money (1980 onward) Debit and credit Money moves without being carried at
cards, net banking all

6. UPI (2016 onward) Phone payments, QR Instant, free of cash, usable by the
codes smallest street seller

Alongside the form, the authority behind money changed too. Ancient coins were issued by
individual rulers; today the Reserve Bank of India alone may issue currency, and it is not legal
for anybody else to do so.

Q5 What steps might have been taken in ancient times so that Indian coins could
become the medium of exchange across countries?

For a coin to be trusted by a stranger in a distant port, the ruler had to make it reliable,
recognisable and welcome. The likely steps:

1. Keep the metal content constant. Every paṇa had to hold the same weight and purity of
silver or gold, so that a foreign merchant could accept it without testing each coin.
2. Control minting strictly. Because minting was controlled entirely by the ruler, fakes could
be punished and the coin's reputation protected.
3. Use a clear, well-known stamp. The punched rūpas — the royal emblem, a Varaha, a tiger
— acted like a signature that any trader could learn to recognise.
4. Use durable alloys. Alloying made coins hard enough to survive years of travel without
wearing away.
5. Issue standard denominations. A family of small and large coins let both a spice sale and a
shipload be paid for in the same currency.
6. Back the coins with real trade. Coins are accepted abroad only if the issuing country has
goods people want. India's pepper, spices, textiles, beads and pearls gave its coins their pull.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

7. Protect the trade routes and ports. Safe harbours, and treaties or friendly ties with other
kingdoms, kept merchants coming.
8. Accept foreign coins in return. Roman gold coins circulating in Pudukkottai show that
exchange ran both ways — mutual acceptance is what makes cross-border currency work.

Why it happens: a coin is a promise. A promise travels only as far as the reputation
of the one who makes it. Powerful rulers with stable, honest coinage found their
money accepted “across various kingdoms and not just their own”.

Q6 Read the following lines from the Arthaśhāstra. “An annual salary of 60 paṇas could
be substituted by an āḍhaka of grain per day, enough for four meals…” (One āḍhaka
is equal to about 3 kg) What does this indicate about the value of one paṇa? The
fine for failing to help a neighbour was 100 paṇas. Compare this with the annual
salary. What conclusion can you draw about the human values being encouraged
through this?

Part 1 — the value of one paṇa. Work out how much grain the year's salary was worth, then
divide.

Grain for one year = 1 āḍhaka × 365 days = 365 āḍhakas

365 āḍhakas × 3 kg = 1,095 kg of grain a year

This equals 60 paṇas.

So 1 paṇa = 365 ÷ 60 = ≈ 6.08 āḍhakas

= 6.08 × 3 kg = ≈ 18.25 kg of grain

So one paṇa was worth about 18 kg of grain — roughly six days' food for a person (an
āḍhaka fed one person for four meals, that is a full day). A paṇa was clearly not small change; it
was a substantial coin.
Part 2 — the fine compared with the salary.

Page 23 of 30

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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Fine for failing to help a neighbour = 100 paṇas
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indifference more costly than most crimes against property.

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Q7 Write and enact a skit to show how people may have persuaded each other to use
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cowrie shells (or other such items)

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the agreement. The audience should be able to name at least three limitations of barter from

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what they see. Five or six speaking parts, five to seven minutes, one narrator to set the scene.
g · Old Gopal (village elder) ·
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Sample skit — “The Shell that Everyone Wanted”
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Narrator: Long ago, in a village
had to swap for.
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Meera: Fish for a pot, Kanha! One good pot for two fish.

com
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Kanha: But I don't need a pot, Meera. I need cloth. My shirt is torn.
Meera: Then take my pot to Devi and bring me back her cloth!
Devi: I have cloth, but I don't want a pot either. I want grain — and no one here has grain
until the harvest.
Kanha (to the audience): So my fish will rot by evening, and I will still have a torn shirt.

Scene 2 — the sailor arrives with an idea.

Sailor: In the port towns nobody argues like this. We use cowrie shells. (holds up a handful)
Whatever you sell, take shells. Whatever you buy, give shells.
Devi: But a shell cannot be eaten or worn. What use is it?
Sailor: That is exactly its use. It is small, so you can carry a hundred in one hand. It does not
rot, so you can keep it a year. And they are all alike, so we can count them instead of arguing.

Scene 3 — the objection, and the answer.

Old Gopal: And if I take shells for my grain and nobody accepts them tomorrow? I will have
sold my harvest for a bag of pebbles.
Sailor: Then let us all promise together, today, before the whole village. Once everyone
accepts them, no one loses.
Meera: I agree. Ten shells for a pot.
Kanha: Three shells for a fish.
Devi: Twenty shells for a length of cloth.
Old Gopal: Then it is settled. From today, this village trades in shells. (He gives Kanha shells
for fish; Kanha gives Devi shells for cloth; Devi keeps the shells for grain after the harvest.)
Narrator: Nothing had changed in the market — the same fish, the same pots, the same
cloth. Only now there was one thing that everybody would take. That is how money begins.

Tip: the strongest line in the whole skit is Old Gopal's objection. Money works only
because everyone agrees to accept it — so the turning point of your skit should be
the moment the village agrees together, not the moment the shells appear.

Q8 The RBI is the only legal source that prints and distributes paper currency in India.
To prevent illegal printing of notes and their misuse, the RBI has introduced many
security features. Find out what some of these measures are and discuss them in
class.

How to find out: hold a genuine note against the light and tilt it; compare it with the RBI's
“Know Your Banknotes” chart (also printed on the back of many bank passbooks); ask a bank
cashier to demonstrate.
Main security features of an Indian banknote:

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

FEATURE HOW YOU CHECK IT WHY IT STOPS A
COUNTERFEITER

Watermark Hold to the light — the Mahatma Gandhi It is made in the paper, not printed on
portrait and an electrotype numeral appear it
inside the paper

Security thread A metallic strip running through the note; it Cannot be reproduced by a printer or
reads “भारत” and “RBI” and changes colour photocopier
when tilted

Colour-shifting ink Tilt the note — the numeral changes from A scanned copy keeps a single flat
green to blue colour

Latent image Hold the note flat at eye level — a hidden Needs specialised intaglio printing
numeral appears

Micro-lettering Under a magnifying glass, tiny “RBI” and Blurs into a smudge when copied
the denomination appear

Intaglio (raised) Run a finger over the portrait and the Ordinary printing is flat
printing emblem — they feel raised

Fluorescence Under ultraviolet light the number panel and Requires special ink and paper
fibres glow

See-through Half the numeral is on the front and half on Demands exact front-and-back
register the back; they line up perfectly against the alignment
light

Special paper and Cotton-based paper; every note has a unique The paper is not sold commercially;
serial numbers ascending serial number duplicate numbers are easily caught

Points for the class discussion: Why is a fake note a crime against everybody, not just against
the person who receives it? What should you do if you suspect a note is fake? Why does the law
allow only one body — the RBI — to issue currency?

Why it happens: paper is nearly worthless in itself; a ₹500 note is valuable only
because people trust the RBI's promise. Counterfeiting attacks that trust, so the note
is loaded with features that are cheap for you to check and very expensive for a
criminal to copy.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q9 Interview a few of your family members and local shopkeepers, and ask them their
preferences in making and receiving payments — do they prefer cash or UPI? Why?

How to do the interview well. Choose six to eight people of different ages and occupations —
a grandparent, a parent, a vegetable vendor, a tea-stall owner, a medical shop, an auto driver.
Ask permission first, take notes, and ask the same questions to everyone so the answers can be
compared. Use open questions (“Why do you prefer that?”), not leading ones.
A record sheet you can use:

PERSON AGE PREFERS MAIN REASON MAIN WORRY
GROUP GIVEN

Grandmother 70+ Cash Can see and count it; Afraid of pressing the
used to it wrong button

Vegetable 40s Both UPI saves hunting for Poor network at the mandi
vendor change

Medical shop 30s UPI Automatic record; no Server down at peak hours
fake notes

Auto driver 50s Cash Needs money in hand Bank transfer takes time to
for fuel withdraw

What people usually say:

REASONS FOR PREFERRING UPI REASONS FOR PREFERRING CASH

No problem of change for odd amounts Works without a phone, network or electricity

Safe — no large sums kept in the shop Easy for elderly people and those not comfortable with phones

Every payment is automatically recorded No risk of a wrong transfer or a failed transaction

Instant, and works even for ₹10 Money is available immediately for the next purchase

No risk of fake notes Spending feels more visible, so it is easier to control

Sample answer: “I interviewed six people. Four of them — all under forty — said they prefer
UPI, mainly because it removes the change problem and leaves a record. The two older people
preferred cash; my grandmother said she likes to see her money, and the auto driver said he
needs cash in hand for petrol. Almost everyone used both. The commonest complaint about UPI
was network failure, and the commonest complaint about cash was change.”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: when you present your findings, group the answers by age. The clearest pattern
in most classrooms is that preference shifts with age and with whether the person
owns a smartphone — not with how much money they earn.

Chapter at a glance
Before money existed, people exchanged goods and services directly for other goods and
services. This is the barter system, and cowrie shells, salt, tea, tobacco, cloth, cattle and
seeds were among the commodities used.
Barter runs into five problems: the double coincidence of wants, the lack of a common
standard measure of value, divisibility, portability and durability.
Money solves all five. It works as a medium of exchange, a common denomination that
measures value, a store of value, and a standard of deferred payment.
Ancient Indian coins of gold, silver and copper (or their alloys) were called kārṣhāpaṇas or
paṇas and carried punched symbols called rūpas. Rulers alone controlled minting.
Paper money was first used in China and came to India in the late 18th century. Today only
the Reserve Bank of India may issue currency.
The journey continues: debit and credit cards from about 1980 and UPI from 2016 have
made money intangible — digital money you cannot touch.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
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Quick revision
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TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT

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CHAPTER

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Barter system Exchanging goods and services Page 230, the very Your extra eraser for a

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without using money classmate's extra pencil

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exchange

Commodities Products or goods that can be Page 230, list of Cowrie shells, salt, tea,
traded, bought and sold things used before
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tobacco, cloth, cattle, seeds

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money

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of wants what the other wants and can farmer's difficulty shoemaker who wants an

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Common standard An agreed-upon worth that lets Page 233, why barter How many bags of wheat

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measure of value values be compared equal one sweater?

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a or portions
Divisibility The capacity of an Page 233, the ox You cannot exchange one
split into pieces problem leg of an ox for a sweater

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Portability The ability of an object to be Page 233, taking the Carrying sacks of wheat to
carried from place to place ox everywhere
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three different sellers

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g Grain spoils; a coin does
. Page 234, wheatarots
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Durability
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The ability to withstand damage

gl a and be stored for a long time or is eaten by rats not
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a mint is the facility that makes minting in ancient India
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them

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or more metallic elements are made of iron with chromium, silicon

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and carbon

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kārṣhāpaṇa / paṇa Page 238, Coinage as paṇaṁ in Tamil,
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haṇa in Kannada

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rūpa The symbol punched on an Page 238 The likely ancestor of the

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word rupee
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ancient coin

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Obverse / Reverse The head side and the tail side Page 239 Chalukya coins: Varaha on

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of a coin one side, three-tiered
parasol on the other

co m
m .
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.co


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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 From Barter to Money AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT EXAMPLE
APPEARS IN THE
CHAPTER

Currency The system of money used in a Page 242 Indian rupee coins and
particular country notes

Denominations Units in which coins and notes Page 242 50 paisa, ₹1, ₹2, ₹5, ₹10,
are classified ₹20 coins; ₹10 to ₹1000
notes

QR Code A 'quick-response' code of black Page 243, Scan and pay straight into
and white squares holding bank- Krishnappa's fruit the seller's bank account
account information cart

Page 30 of 30