Money - History

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Discussion

The 'state' origins of money

Key essay: Pavlina Tcherneva reviews the 'chartalist' accounts of the history of money, i.e. state-driven interpretations, at http://pavlina-tcherneva.net/papers/Arestis-Sawyer-Chapter%2005.pdf


Comment by Paul Cockshott:

"The origin of money is closely linked with state finance. It is a myth that it originates with barter.

Money becomes important in those societies in which the state commutes tax revenues from labour services to symbolic taxes in tokens issued by the state. When this occures it enforces the spread of commodity production.

It was certainly a factor in the demise of feudalism in europe, but it also reached a high level of development in the slave economies of the roman empire and the Hellenistic/Ptolomaic kingdoms which preceeded it.

In these cases the existence of money accelerated the transition from petty farmers to slave production."


Other sources recommended by Paul Cockshott:


Inghams book 'The Nature of Money' gives a good account, see also the work of the economist Randall Wray, Understanding Modern Money (see also: Credit and State Theories of Money).

Forstater gives a good account of a more recent instance, the penetration of monetary relations into Africa under British and French colonial rule. http://cas.umkc.edu/econ/economics/faculty/Forstater/papers/BookChaptersEnclopediaEntries/TaxDrivenMoney.pdf

In response to Christian Siefkes' question about money in the transtion from feudalism to capitalism in English, see Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production - HINDESS, BARRY AND PAUL Q. HIRST

Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, Perry Anderson, http://www.amazon.com/Passages-Antiquity-Feudalism-Verso-Classics/dp/1859841074

Pierre Villar, History of Gold and Money,