DescriptionThe history of money in Argentina has always been chaotic. The national governments were constantly spending money they didn’t have, getting into debt, repudiating the debt. Two centuries of that. There was a private bank period, then various regimes that played favorites as they took on more debt. And then all of those currency reforms of the 20th century, before, during, and after the dictatorship.Aside from China, other governments started using circulating “banknotes” starting in the 17th century AD. The practice became general in the 19th century. In the 20th century value of paper money in circulation far surpassed the value of coinage. In the 21st century paper money is fading and credit transactions are growing.Paper money, meaning the promise of a government to pay a set amount, and the paper promise allowed to circulate at will, was probably first used in China in the 12th century AD. At that time the merchants and governments of Europe were just writing letters to each other about what they owed.
