ABSTRACT
The term money is not an eternal entity. Its formation is contingent on a given set of social, economic, technological and legal conditions. The concept, nonetheless, appears among the earliest writings of the ancient moral thinkers. Whilst these authors have called attention to some contemporary forms of money, their account of the origin of money is neither clearly contemplated nor explicitly stated. The theory is by no means fully elaborated. For reasons which will be expounded in the subsequent chapters, the validity of this theory is open to grave doubts. But the subsequent importance of the theory is considerable. In essence, the theory in one form or another has sustained its presence ever since ancient times. On the whole, this is the same exposition of the origin of money that we find in any modern economics textbook.
