ABSTRACT
Most economic theorists see money as a 'neutral veil' over the economy, a simple vehicle to facilitate exchange, and find the roots of modern money in barter. Interestingly there is considerable confusion and even disagreement among even economists on the question of money creation, and even anthropologists studying exchange in traditional societies often neglected this question. Anthropologists long debated the differences between special- or limited- purpose money and general-purpose money, and, more importantly, what happens when a general-purpose monetary system is introduced into a society with only a special-purpose currency. The value of money as a store of value is related to two things: its scarcity and the extent to which, by itself, it is capable of growing. Credit-money, on the other hand, is capable of infinite expansion, and consequently threatens to fall in value, that is, what one can buy with it. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
