Money is used as an exchange medium that we use till today. Before we know currency, we use a lot of exchange methods, one of which is barter system. Aristotle said, “Every object has two uses, the first being the original purpose for which the object was designed, and the second possibility is to conceive of the object as an item to sell or barter.”(Meikle, 1994).In the past, people used shells, seeds, fruits, vegetables, etc. as a medium of exchange to get something that they needed. Here in Indonesia, we also use barter system back then. But with growing era, we started to know what currency is. Till today we have 3 eras of the history of money. There are kingdom era, before the independence era, and after the independence era.
There are a lot of kingdoms in Indonesia back then. Almost every part of Indonesia has its own kingdom and each kingdom has its own currency. In Sumatra, there is Samudra Pasai kingdom. It was located on Aceh and it was the first Islam kingdom in Indonesia. “Their currency was dirham and it was made in about 1297-1326AD.” (Hermanu, 2011) The second one is Gowa kingdom. It was located in Sulawesi Island. “Their currencies were kupa and jingara. The difference between kupa and jingara is the material. Kupa was made of nickel and brass, while jingara was made of gold and they were made in the 16th century.” (Hermanu, 2011)And the third one is Banten kingdom. This one was located in Banten, Java Island. “Their currency was kasha. Kasha was made of gold and the design of this currency was influenced from Chinese accent. “ (Hermanu, 2011)
As we know, Indonesia was colonized by a lot of countries. Two of them are Netherlands and japan. We were colonized by Dutch for more than 3 centuries and for just about 3 years by Japanese. In the era of Dutch colonization, we used Sen and gulden as our currency. “Sen was made of silver. The only nominal of Sen was 5 Sen and has the same value as 20 gulden (gulden was Dutch currency). After japan seizes the Indonesia region. We used Japanese gulden.” (Hermanu, 2011).But luckily japan was colonized us just for 3 years
And the last period of our money evolution is after the independence era. The first currency after the independence era is ORI (Oeang Repoeblik Indonesia). ORI was used for the first time in 30th October 1946. Indonesia used ORI ‘till March 1950. After that, Indonesia used rupiah. The currency that we used ‘till today. A lot of changes happen. From the design of rupiah, the nominal, and a lot of progress going on. According to a historian, Pratomo said “Rupiah was derived from Mongolian. In Mongolian, the original word was “rupia” (without h) which means silver. But because of our pronunciation especially Javanese so we called it rupiah.” (Pratomo, 2002).Till today the design of rupiah has already changed for more than 3 times. And the design is more and more complicated than before so it gets harder to imitate the money.
Before we know about currency, we used the barter system. We used things to get things that we need. After the barter system, we know about the currency in kingdom era. We used a lot of currencies back then, but we don’t really know about the history. In kingdom era, there are a lot of kingdoms and they have their own currency for each kingdom. Like Samudra Pasai kingdom, they used dirham as their currency. Gowa kingdom, they used kupa and jingara as their currency. And also Banten kingdom, they used kasha as their currency. After the kingdom era, we enter the era before the independence. We were colonized by some countries but the longest and the shortest are Netherlands and japan. In the era of Dutch occupied, we used Sen as our currency. And the era of Japanese occupied, we used Japanese gulden. After Indonesia’s independence, we have our own currency. The first generation of our currency is ORI (Oeang Repoeblik Indonesia) and the next generation is rupiah that we used till today. So, I hope after you know about the history of money in Indonesia. You will be more wisely to use the money.
References
Pratomo, A. (2002). Hikayat Rupiah. Jurnal Rupiah .
Hermanu. (2011). Seri Lawasan : Uang Kuno. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.
Meikle, S. (1994). Aristotle on Money. Phronesis , 26-44.
