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The Trade Theory of Money: External Exchange and the Origins of Money
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory ( IF 3.2 ) Pub Date : 2025-01-21 , DOI: 10.1007/s10816-025-09694-9
Mikael Fauvelle

For over a century, scholars have debated the merits of two competing theories for the origins of money. The commodity theory of money has traditionally held that money developed as a medium of exchange in order to increase the economic efficiency of barter economies. Alternatively, chartalist explanations have given causal primacy to the role of state taxation in standardizing money as a unit of account. Recently, skepticism over the existence of barter economies in either contemporary societies or ancient history has led to the increased popularity of the state-centric chartalist approach. Evidence from many pre-state societies around the world, however, shows that commodity money was often used in long-distance trade networks where systems of debt and reciprocity would have been impractical. This paper draws on evidence from two such exchange systems, the “interior world” of pre-Columbian western North America and the Bronze Age of western Europe, to argue that money can come about to facilitate exchange between strangers and across borders. As such, I suggest that the commodity theory of money is more accurately explained by the importance of exchange in external rather than internal economic systems. I propose that a trade theory of money can explain the origins of money in pre-state societies without relying on the “myth of barter”.



中文翻译:


货币贸易理论:外部交换和货币的起源



一个多世纪以来,学者们一直在争论两种相互竞争的货币起源理论的优劣。货币商品理论传统上认为,货币作为一种交换媒介而发展,以提高易货经济的经济效率。或者,图表主义的解释将国家税收在将货币标准化为记账单位方面的作用给予了因果首要地位。最近,对当代社会或古代历史上是否存在易货经济的怀疑导致了以国家为中心的图表主义方法的日益流行。然而,来自世界各地许多前国家社会的证据表明,商品货币经常用于长途贸易网络,在这些网络中,债务和互惠制度是不切实际的。本文借鉴了前哥伦布时期北美西部的“内陆世界”和西欧青铜时代的两种交换系统的证据,认为货币的出现可以促进陌生人和跨境的交换。因此,我认为货币的商品理论更准确地解释为交换在外部经济体系中的重要性,而不是内部经济体系中的重要性。我提出货币贸易理论可以解释前国家社会货币的起源,而无需依赖“易货神话”。

更新日期:2025-01-21
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