comment by user-inactivated

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user-inactivated · 4354 days ago · link · · parent · post: The two constants, or, why money has value

unfortunately I don't.

rereading Graeber, I also realize that he never explicitly said "the first state coinage", so now I am uncomfortable with claiming such. he was speaking generally about Chartalist theories of states' early efforts to create markets and presenting a hypothetical situation in which it would be beneficial to do so.

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NotPhil · 4353 days ago · link ·

I was only able to find this, which is by Graeber also:

Early markets often followed armies or royal entourages, or formed near palaces or at the fringes of military posts. This actually helps explain the rather puzzling behaviour on the part of royal courts: after all, since kings usually controlled the gold and silver mines, what exactly was the point of stamping bits of the stuff with your face on it, dumping it on the civilian population, and then demanding they give it back to you again as taxes? It only makes sense if levying taxes was really a way to force everyone to acquire coins, so as to facilitate the rise of markets, since markets were convenient to have around.

I've been told about a theory which postulates that markets came about as a way for generals to get rid of their booty in exchange for items which were more useful than the spoils of war, but I can't remember whose theory that was.