<span title="Anthropologist/Economist/Archaeologist">Anthropologist/Economist/...</span> graduate or student, please help?

Question

When the first societies based on an agricultural economy stabilized into regional influences was money, or the portable tokens of wealth; viable given the universal aversion and social immorality to trading food stocks for profit in stone age economics and what was the cultural event or critical mass that allowed this long standing tradition to be swept away thereby causing 'money" to take on the importance it represents to this day?

Answer 1

The cultural event or critical mass event as you call it, was principally urbanisation. With the growth of urban settlements came the complexity of trade developing out of a simple bartering system and the need for both an acceptable medium of exchange and  a uniform system of accounting.

Answer 2

Good Question!

The advent of mass-production reduced the practicality of carrying around large quantities of heavy items, or an abundance of domesticated animals.

The oldest known coin ever found, had a picture of wheat engraved on it.

By 5,000 years ago, the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus River Valley were thriving, and traded commerce regularly.

The standard wage for laborers was one day&#039;s &quot;Bread &amp; Beer&quot;, for one day&#039;s work.

When farming harvests became abundant, and when olive oil &amp; wine was shipped by boat in heavy Amphora pottery, the sheer weight of these products, necessitated the transition from simple barter, to exchange of capital, upon delivery, because of the time it would take for the boat to return, and the amount exchanged, was not always equal.

Basically, the simple exchanges of inequalities, transformed into I.O.U&#039;s!

Answer 3

In the cave painting entitled, &quot;Universal aversions and social immorality dos and don&#039;ts&quot;  Money is easy to carry and a bunch of eggs tend to get broken. Portable is your key word. Money today means more than getting what you need, it means being able to symbolically insult others who have less of it. You can also do this by communicating a simple idea into long words contained in a long paragraph.