Early origins of money

Part I provides a synopsis of the ongoing stream of innovation in monetary and financial history, as well as the scholarly struggle to understand and assimilate it in the history of monetary thought. It serves as an introduction to the non-specialist, providing the general historical background. In the first of three chapters, the focus is on the early origins of money as a social institution. It is of significance to the later discussion of Schumpeter’s monetary theory for two reasons: first, the historical account illustrates the perpetual stream of new monetary arrangements and their importance to the real economy; second, the modern historical record puts into perspective the traditional preoccupation with metallism and the coinage of money as a means of exchange, which dominated the monetary orthodoxy at Schumpeter’s time. In other words, the early history of money highlights the modernity of Schumpeter’s later vision.