Bartering was never the primary source of trade, and in prehistory, gift economies and sometimes loose concepts of debt occurred, while bartering was limited to potentially just strangers and enemies. The prehistory section is quite interesting here.
It seems that after prehistory during the formation of agriculture, instead of going to a barter based economy, “ledgers” were kept instead, which introduced the concept of debt and credit.
Yes, not centuries. When large societies were formed with trade amongst strangers becoming more common, money and/or ledgers were created to keep track of specific amounts of debts and credits. There was also never a point in time in which bartering was the primary system of economics.
Arguably millennia ago? There has always been some degree of bartering that will never fully disappear, but money has been around for a long long time in basically all cultures
Because direct trade and barter stopped making sense centuries ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_money
Bartering was never the primary source of trade, and in prehistory, gift economies and sometimes loose concepts of debt occurred, while bartering was limited to potentially just strangers and enemies. The prehistory section is quite interesting here.
It seems that after prehistory during the formation of agriculture, instead of going to a barter based economy, “ledgers” were kept instead, which introduced the concept of debt and credit.
Note: I am not an anthropologist.
it’s almost as if we figured out money made the most sense thousands of years ago
Yes, not centuries. When large societies were formed with trade amongst strangers becoming more common, money and/or ledgers were created to keep track of specific amounts of debts and credits. There was also never a point in time in which bartering was the primary system of economics.
Although weren’t currencies tied to a physical good for value until very recently?
Yes, and we stopped doing that because it made the system less stable
Arguably millennia ago? There has always been some degree of bartering that will never fully disappear, but money has been around for a long long time in basically all cultures