Economics, Anthropology and the Origin of Money as a Bargaining Counter

For many decades economists have disputed with economic anthropologists over the origins of money.Economists claim that money emerged from barter exchange; anthropologists claim that it originated as a ‘unit of account’ in the temples and palaces of ancient Mesopotamia.This book argues that money originated as a bargaining counter in a system of money-bargaining, emerging almost seamlessly from barter-bargaining.This is not the ‘money’ of mainstream economic conception - a ‘veil’ cast over a system of resource allocation defined in mathematical terms. Confidence in the bargaining counter is sustained through ‘support-bargaining,’ a process in which individuals seek the support of their associates but seek at the same time to advance their own interests.A comprehensive ‘Introduction to Support-Bargaining and Money-Bargaining’ is provided by the work.The arrival of coin-money is recognised by many as a crucial event in the history of mankind, and it is argued here that the distinctive ch