Prices can be denominated in any asset, and payments go thru a clearing house that matches and settles trades in real time. This is what gave rise to money in

Prices can be denominated in any asset, and payments go thru a clearing house that matches and settles trades in real time. This is what gave rise to money in the first place: "1/14th of my goat for one pound of bread." Before you knew it, different cultures far apart had to use a common denominator (salt, tobacco leaves, nails, iron, stamped metals, etc...) among themselves, and later with other cultures: