Terry McDonough wrote: > This is an alternative to the standard origin story where a universal > commodity intermediates what used to be barter. The market does not generate > its own currency initially and consequently monetary economies are intimately > imbricated with the state from their origin.<
the whole idea of regular barter being used in social exchanges seems silly. I think that instead of standard market exchanges, Karl Polanyi was right: reciprocity and redistribution were the main ways of organizing "exchange" before the rise of money and markets. The former splits into two types: a) balanced reciprocity (I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.) b) generalized reciprocity is the same as virtually uninhibited sharing. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
