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Standard Payment Methods
The standard payment methods for transactions reveal a great deal about the development of human society and technological progress. The most basic method remains the oldest, barter. In undeveloped areas of the world where most of the population are engaged in agriculture, it may still make sense to make payments using a barter system. If a farmer wants a new cow, he may prefer paying his fellow farmer ten sheep for the cow rather than paying him in the local currency that may well lack the stability that makes it a favored means of exchange.
In the course of the past few thousand years, up until about fifty years ago, cash became the most important of the standard payment methods adopted in the western world. Prior to the 1920s coins made of gold and silver, and their poorer copper cousins served as the standard payment methods for most transactions. Certainly, the developing of commercial banking from the eighteenth century had brought with it a greater use of bankers orders and checks but the average man in the street continued to receive payment for their work in coin and to make their payments in coin.
Over the past thirty years a historic transformation has taken place. In the post 1945 years the use of checks came into fashion. From the 1970s the credit card began to become very popular and people began to speculate that coins and notes might soon be a thing of the past.
Today, if a person wants for example, to buy a new car they have a wide range of payment methods available. The more conservative customers might prefer to offer to pay through a series of post-dated checks. Payment by credit card will however be the preferred means of most purchases. However there will still be customers who will prefer to make even such relatively large payments in cash. Unless the buyers and sellers are well known to each other, the sellers might also have a predilection for receiving payment in cash. Although there is always a chance a buyer might try to pass off forged notes, generally cash in the hand is welcome by sellers.
For more infomation on standard payment methods choose from the list below. |
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Banking - Business Finances - Economics - Insurance - Investing
Major Purchases - Personal Finances - Stock Market - Taxes
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