In ancient times, shells were used as money. Why don't the poor pick up more shells and make themselves rich overnight?

In the history of China, shells were used as money in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, that is, the pre-Qin period. Beibi in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty gradually lost its monetary value, and Beibi in the Qin Dynasty also stopped circulating. The "civilized people" in the pre-Qin period mainly lived in inland areas such as Shaanxi and Henan, which were far away from the sea. The east coast is full of fierce barbarians who have to give their lives to pick up shells.

1. Not all shellfish can be used to make shell coins. According to the different types of unearthed shell coins, the shellfish used as coins mainly include shellfish, Avon Shoubei, jujube shellfish, tiger-spotted shellfish, ringed shellfish, spotted eyeball, torreya grandis and so on. China's southeastern and southern coastal waters. Take more than 6,800 pieces of Kombe unearthed from the tomb of the rich in Anyang, Henan as an example. From the offshore islands south of Xiamen to the Nansha Islands, it may have been distributed in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea when it was warm more than 2,000 years ago. Anyang, Henan Province is also about 400 kilometers away from the sea, and the linear distance from Xiamen, Fujian Province is also more than 1300 kilometers. In the pre-Qin period when the traffic was underdeveloped, there were barbarians on the east coast, and most of them were underdeveloped "miasma towns" in the south. Ordinary people simply can't reach it.

2. Natural shells can't be directly used as money, but also need complicated processes such as manual polishing, drilling and carving, so their value is extremely high. Ordinary people simply can't complete these processes. Take modern society as an example. How many people can imitate RMB? At that time, shell coins were not only money, but also decorations and status symbols. It is precisely because the production of shell coins is time-consuming and laborious that shells in inland areas are extremely rare. Later, copper shells, lead shells, stone shells, bone shells and coins were gradually used as money. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the eastern coastal areas began to develop, and shell coins were gradually replaced by metal coins.

At that time, productivity was very low, and there were not many surplus items for commodity exchange. There is only a small amount of trade between big noble and the big landlords. Shell coins may be a tool for trading between them, or they may be a reward from superiors to subordinates.

The poor in the pre-Qin period didn't know what the sea was and where the shells came from. The poor in the pre-Qin period were either slaves who had no personal freedom at all or low-level farmers who were bound by land all their lives. They have hardly seen the world, don't know what the sea is, don't know where the sea is, and don't know where the beautiful things on the nobles come from.