Introduction
The invention of paper and technological developments in printing machines are indisputably the most important factors in the use of paper money. However, there is another factor that is often overlooked and that many scientists have defended: The Black Plague.
The clothes left over from millions of people who lost their lives in this epidemic have become a very low-cost raw material source for papermakers, and a high amount of paper was used in various areas with the produced papers. Thus, this epidemic has become one of the factors that do not come to the fore in the spread of paper money, yet important.About 670 years after the Black Plague, on 17 November 2019, the first case of a new epidemic that would sweep the world in the Far East emerged. The name of this new epidemic was COVID-19. In a period of ongoing digital transformation, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which affected the world in a very short time, on social and economic areas was enormous. The strict implementation of hygiene and social distancing rules, especially in the social field, has brought a new order to social life.
The measures implemented in social life to prevent the spread of the epidemic also have effects in the financial field. Even the preference of payment in cash (paper and coins) in daily life has changed. In order to minimize the spread of the virus, debitcredit cards, mobile payments and electronic currencies (digital, virtual currencies, etc.) used in a more limited environment have come to the fore, instead of money. Contrary to the Black Plague epidemic, COVID-19 will be listed among the main components such as development of financial technology and mass media, as regards the spread of electronic currencies today.
This section will, firstly, explain the concept of money within the framework of the views of various economists. Then, the milestones of the concept of money will be explained as a summary from the past to the present. Finally, the usual impact of digital transformation in the financial field on money and the extraordinary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this process will be discussed.
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