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Not to sound harsh, but are there any historical sources or references for this essay? It's likely another just-so story about gold and the emergence of money
by applecore 11y ago
Not to sound harsh, but are there any historical sources or references for this essay?
It's likely another just-so story about gold and the emergence of money from the barter economy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story
- dnautics 11y agoIt's probably the case that barter economies only emerge in cultures that have a concept of money, so even this is a just-so story.
- jron 11y agoYou might enjoy Nick Szabo's work on the subject: http://szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html http://szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html
- allworknoplay 11y agoIt's ridiculous and completely made up. He's treating prehistory like history -- we have absolutely no clue how this stuff evolved. Based on the role of art in history, it's highly likely that people did what they did with gold because religion / witch doctory, not economics. "Rich people" with lots of stuff in the history we know about were rich because of force and threat, not trade. Edited to add: that doesn't mean trade didn't happen, just that people mostly weren't "rich" off of it.