The Origins of Money

Money is almost always something hovering between a commodity and a debt token. In other times and places, the interests of lords and merchants prevailed instead. It's only once we can imagine human life as a series of commercial transactions that were capable of seeing our relation to the universe in terms of debt. The feeling of personal obligation has its origin in the oldest and most primitive personal relationship there is: selling and buying itself precede any other form of human relationship. We have found no civilization still at such a low level that something of this relationship is not already perceptible.