flix on Nostr: Let's take a step back to the 3 competing theories... 1. Market origin (Menger) 2. ...
Let's take a step back to the 3 competing theories...
1. Market origin (Menger)
2. Fiat origin (chartalist)
3. Debt
What would be the perfect, definitive archaeological evidence for each of these?
Menger described the process as an evolutionary one:
Barter -> commodity money -> evolving consensus on one commodity -> standardisation
We have plenty of evidence for barter and commodity money. How would you prove consensus and standardisation over time?
You would need multiple points in time. A perfect fit for the theory would be a series of texts from multiple centuries with the earliest using multiple units of account and the latter using just one as the commonly accepted Unit of Account.
For example a 20th C. sumerian tablet from a trader listing weights of silver, barley, copper, etc... and a 12th C. Hittite tablet listing goods all priced in silver shekels.
1. Market origin (Menger)
2. Fiat origin (chartalist)
3. Debt
What would be the perfect, definitive archaeological evidence for each of these?
Menger described the process as an evolutionary one:
Barter -> commodity money -> evolving consensus on one commodity -> standardisation
We have plenty of evidence for barter and commodity money. How would you prove consensus and standardisation over time?
You would need multiple points in time. A perfect fit for the theory would be a series of texts from multiple centuries with the earliest using multiple units of account and the latter using just one as the commonly accepted Unit of Account.
For example a 20th C. sumerian tablet from a trader listing weights of silver, barley, copper, etc... and a 12th C. Hittite tablet listing goods all priced in silver shekels.