The Trade Theory of Money : External Exchange and the Origins of Money
Fauvelle, Mikael LU
(2025)
In Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
32(23).
- Abstract
- 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... (More)
- 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”. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/504bdec7-57b8-4690-b124-d973bfda8445
- author
- Fauvelle, Mikael
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Origins of money, Shell beads, Bronze Age, Economic anthropology, Trade and exchange
- in
- Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
- volume
- 32
- issue
- 23
- article number
- 23
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85218076377
- ISSN
- 1573-7764
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10816-025-09694-9
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 504bdec7-57b8-4690-b124-d973bfda8445
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-21 13:42:04
- date last changed
- 2025-05-18 04:03:13
@article{504bdec7-57b8-4690-b124-d973bfda8445,
abstract = {{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”.}},
author = {{Fauvelle, Mikael}},
issn = {{1573-7764}},
keywords = {{Origins of money; Shell beads; Bronze Age; Economic anthropology; Trade and exchange}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{23}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory}},
title = {{The Trade Theory of Money : External Exchange and the Origins of Money}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/206558841/Fauvelle_2025_-_Trade_Theory_of_Money.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10816-025-09694-9}},
volume = {{32}},
year = {{2025}},
}