_David_ Graeber. Great book. I recommend it to everyone. It makes sense that in a village you'd have standing relationships so you wouldn't need to actually pa

_David_ Graeber. Great book. I recommend it to everyone. It makes sense that in a village you'd have standing relationships so you wouldn't need to actually pass currency back and forth. Even in 19th c. Russian novels you'd have the butcher and the baker coming a few times a year to ask for the debts to be settled, but for most of the time you'd just buy things on credit and have it marked on your tab for later payment. The big change in the mid-20th c. was that now there was one system of credit cards that are accepted everywhere instead of many small systems of credit with each particular merchant.