Class 7 Social Science Chapter 11 Questions with Solutions

Concept used. The barter system means direct exchange of goods or services without using money. It works only when both people agree on what they will give and receive.

1. In barter, one person offers a good or service that they do not need at that moment.
2. The other person offers another good or service in return.
3. Both sides compare the items and agree to exchange them directly.
4. The chapter gives examples such as cowrie shells, salt, tea, tobacco, cloth, cattle, seeds, and other useful goods.

Final Answer: The barter system takes place through direct exchange. People used useful commodities such as salt, cloth, cattle, seeds, tobacco, tea, and cowrie shells.

Concept used. A limitation is a difficulty that stops a system from working smoothly. Barter becomes difficult when exchange grows beyond simple local needs.

1. First, barter needs double coincidence of wants. Each person must want exactly what the other offers.
2. Second, there is no common measure of value. It is hard to decide how many bags of wheat equal shoes or medicine.
3. Third, some goods cannot be divided easily. An ox cannot be split fairly for a sweater, shoes, and medicines.
4. Fourth, many goods are difficult to carry or store. Wheat can spoil, and cattle cannot be carried everywhere.
5. Fifth, barter makes future payments difficult because goods may lose value or become unusable.

Final Answer: The main limits were double coincidence of wants, lack of a common value measure, poor divisibility, poor portability, storage problems, and difficulty in future payments.

Concept used. Salient features are the most noticeable qualities. Ancient Indian coins were important because they carried symbols, authority, and trust.

1. Many early Indian coins were made of metals such as silver and copper.
2. Punch-marked coins carried symbols instead of long written labels.
3. Later coins often carried names, images, or signs of rulers and kingdoms.
4. Coins were more durable than many barter goods and could be counted in fixed units.
5. They helped trade because people could recognise their value more easily than loose commodities.

Final Answer: Ancient Indian coins were usually metallic, durable, symbol-bearing, countable, and connected with recognised political authority.

Concept used. A medium of exchange is something widely accepted for buying and selling. Money changed form as trade, technology, and trust changed.

1. The earliest exchange was barter, where goods were exchanged directly.
2. People then used commodity money, such as shells, salt, cloth, cattle, or other accepted goods.
3. Metallic money became common because coins were durable, portable, and countable.
4. Paper currency later made payments lighter and easier for large values.
5. Today, digital money allows payments through bank accounts, cards, mobile phones, and UPI.

Final Answer: Money moved from barter to commodity money, then coins, paper currency, and finally digital forms such as cards, bank transfers, and UPI.

Concept used. For coins to work across regions, traders must trust their weight, metal quality, and issuing authority.

1. Rulers or authorities may have standardised the weight and size of coins.
2. They may have used recognised symbols or marks so that traders could identify the coin.
3. Coins may have been made from metals that people valued, such as silver or copper.
4. Trade routes and markets would have helped coins circulate across regions.
5. Merchants may have accepted coins after testing their metal, weight, and reliability.

Final Answer: Ancient coins could spread through standard weight, trusted metal, recognised symbols, strong trade routes, and repeated acceptance by merchants.

Concept used. A comparison question asks us to connect quantities and meaning. Here, salary, grain, and fine show both economic value and social values.

1. The annual salary was 60 panas.
2. The same salary could be replaced by one adhaka of grain per day.
3. So 60 panas equalled about 365 adhakas of grain in a year.
4. One pana therefore equalled about 365 divided by 60 adhakas, which is about 6 adhakas.
5. Since one adhaka is about 3 kg, one pana was worth about 18 kg of grain.
6. The fine was 100 panas. This was more than one annual salary because 100 is greater than 60.
7. The fine was about one and two-thirds of the annual salary.

Final Answer: One pana was roughly equal to 6 adhakas, or about 18 kg of grain. A 100-pana fine was about 1.67 times the annual salary, showing that helping neighbours was treated as a serious duty.

Concept used. A skit uses dialogue to explain an idea. Here, the idea is that a commonly accepted item can solve barter problems.

1. Show a farmer, potter, weaver, and shopkeeper struggling with barter.
2. Let each person explain the problem: no matching wants, unfair exchange, or hard-to-carry goods.
3. Introduce cowrie shells as a small, countable, and accepted item.
4. Let the group agree that one pot, one basket, or one cloth piece can be priced in shells.
5. End the skit by showing smoother exchange in the village market.

Final Answer: The skit should show barter problems first, then show people agreeing to use cowrie shells because they are small, countable, portable, and accepted.

Concept used. Security features are design features that help people identify genuine notes and make counterfeiting difficult.

1. Indian banknotes include a watermark with Mahatma Gandhi's portrait and the denomination.
2. They use a security thread with inscriptions such as RBI and Bharat.
3. They include see-through register, where parts printed on both sides align when held against light.
4. Many notes use micro letters and latent images that are hard to copy.
5. Raised printing, bleed lines, identification marks, fluorescent ink, and growing number panels also help verification.

Final Answer: Important security features include watermark, security thread, see-through register, micro lettering, latent image, raised printing, bleed lines, fluorescent ink, and growing number panels.

Concept used. An interview activity collects real opinions. The answer should present different preferences and the reasons behind them.

1. Ask each person whether they prefer cash, UPI, or both.
2. Ask why they prefer that mode of payment.
3. Record reasons such as speed, convenience, small-change issues, phone network, trust, record keeping, or habit.
4. Compare the answers instead of treating one answer as correct for everyone.
5. Write a short conclusion from the pattern you observe.

Final Answer: A good interview answer records who was asked, what they preferred, why they preferred it, and what pattern was noticed.