2.Money and Technology in Ancient Times
Money and Technology in Ancient Times Et maioures et posteros vestros cogitate. __ Cornelius Tacitus Ask two economists a question, and you will get three different answers - so a popular joke goes. This is an exaggeration, but with a grain of truth: Economists often disagree with one another, perhaps because their theories are so difficult to prove or disprove. When they agree, it may happen that their proposition is disproved by other scientists. This happened to a theory that interests us here: that of the origin of money. Adam Smith, the father of classical economics, in his 1776 magnum opus An Inquiry on the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, argued that money arises spontaneously from labor specialization. In primitive societies - so his story goes - each person procured the necessary for the self and the family and no exchange took place. Procurement and consumption remained confined within the same person or small community. As soon as hunter-gatherers settled...