ABSTRACT

From time immemorial people have exchanged goods. Hunters brought home their prey and shared it in the community in exchange for services at home. Friends gave presents to and received presents from each other, mostly in order to get something back: do ut des, I give in order that you give. The gift exchange can develop into a sophisticated exchange of necessary goods embedded in all kinds of social customs and values (Mauss 1923–24). In more complex societies people can obtain desired goods by barter, often after a long ritual of bargaining, and barter gets facilitated if there is one commonly valued and accepted means of exchange. In very early times silver took that role and it is stunning that this remained so for about 5, 000 years. This acceptance of silver is based on social values and irrational trust: why did people accept silver for any good when it is a commodity that you cannot eat, nor make clothes of, nor live in, and is not suitable for making utensils? Yet it was an important means to get desired goods, to hoard wealth, to provide prestige, to become rich. It helped enormously to fix values and to set what we now call ‘prices’. It enables us to write a book on the history of prices.