Barter doesn't appear in the oldest records.
What does appear are temple ledgers of lending and borrowing.
Gifts, Lending/Borrowing, and Money
We will explore the relationship between money and human connections, using gifts, debt, and ritual objects as our guide.
Time to read the text: about 6 min
The review questions are optional and not included in this time.
What you can read: the course opening and contents are free; the full text is for those who have purchased
After purchase, you can read the full text once your access starts.
What Came Before Money, in 3 Minutes
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It hasn't been proven 'wrong.' The evidence just hasn't been found.
The more plausible a story of origin sounds, the more you should check it against the records.
Shell beads, or wampum, were ceremonial items that recorded promises.
They only took on the role of 'money' later.
Shells from the Indian Ocean circulated from Asia to Africa.
Light, easy to count, and hard to counterfeit.
The same shells were used to buy people. The slave trade.
The hand that holds the ruler chooses what to measure.
There's no evidence that shells circulated as money in Japan.
The wealth of this island was rice.
From 1945
After money died, barter trains ran.
Barter appeared not before money, but after.
Shrine offerings are a remnant of prayers offering that year's harvest.
Gifts and debts are both older than money.
2What would you do?
I read in a book that 'money was born from the inconvenience of barter.' If we look at the oldest records, what do we find?
Pick one
Records of bartering in a marketplace.
Surprisingly, you don't. Records of a society living purely by barter have never been found in any civilization.
Temple ledgers recording debts and credits.
That's right. The first banks were temples. However, this doesn't prove the barter theory wrong—it just means no evidence has been found for it yet.
Large-scale barter in the historical record appears after a monetary system collapses. What came before money wasn't exchange, but human relationships.
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What you will understand after this course
- Be able to explain that the barter origin theory of money is an 'unverified popular theory'.
- Be able to explain wampum as a 'ceremonial object' and the associated oversight of its function as money.
- Can explain the circulation of shell money in conjunction with its dark side (the slave trade).
More about this course
Course number: F2
Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama
Beyond the text: 6 exercises · 1 coins · 5 readings How reading times are calculated
You will also understand
- Can cite historical examples of situations where "barter appears after money".
You can start this course without reading any other course.
If you want to know more about checking sources (optional)
- Is It Really True? Checking History
We re-examine the origins of money and famous anecdotes, comparing them with historical records and actual artifacts.
Assessment
6 exercises in this course (4 check, 1 compare, 1 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.
The 6 chapters of this course
- Dissecting the Myth — The 'From Barter' Story Isn't WrittenBarter does not appear in the oldest records. What does appear are temple ledgers. The common theory has not been verified.
- The Fabric of Meaning — Before Calling Wampum MoneyWampum was a ceremonial object used to record promises and weave the words of diplomacy. Its identity as money was imposed later.
- The Light and Shadow of the Shell Road — Millennia of the CowrieShells from the Indian Ocean circulated from Asia to Africa. With those same shells, human beings were counted.
- The island with no shell money — Using negative evidenceCharacters with the shell radical are a story from across the sea. Shell money did not circulate in Japan—the value of an explicit denial.
- Barter after coinage — a reversal of orderThe barter trains ran after money had collapsed. The conventional sequence is often the reverse of what is thought.
- What has continued from before money — Gift, Debt, and PrayerSaisen is the memory of hatsuho; suiko is interest on rice. Money is a layer that was later placed on top of older relationships.
Readings (5)
- Before the beginning Overview: the world the 31st–18th centuries BC Mesopotamia
Section 1. The original text of "Anatomy of a Myth". To be read with E1. - A colony without coin United States the 17th century The New England shore
Section 2. "The Fabric of Meaning". The grammar to be read before calling it money. - Africa and the New World Overview: the world the 16th–19th centuries The Road of the Cowrie Shell
Section 3. The light of the first world currency, and the shadow of counting humans. - Before the coin Japan from the Yayoi period to the 7th century The villages of Wa
Section 4. The value of explicit negation. The character for "shell" is a story from across the sea. - When tobacco was money Germany 1945–1948 The train linking city and countryside
Section 5. An eyewitness account of the barter that emerged after the death of currency.
Read next
Money as Depicted in Literature →What you learn next: Can cite actual examples of literature recording "things that ledgers do not write".
Time to read the text: about 6 min ／ What you can read: the course opening and contents are free; the full text is for those who have purchased
Price
After purchase, the full courses, the illustrated books, every country’s story and the numismatics examination are open to you.
See the price →