ABSTRACT
In the first paragraph of the first chapter of the De Moneta, and under the heading “Why Money was invented,” Nicholas Oresme writes:
“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people.”1 Next, men were multiplied on the earth, and possessions were divided to the best advantage. The result of this was that one man had more than he needed of one commodity, while another had little or none of it, and of another commodity the converse was true . . . Men therefore began to trade by barter: one man gave another a sheep for corn, another gave his labor for bread or wool, and so with other things . . . But as this exchange and transport of commodities gave rise to many inconveniences, men were subtle enough to devise the use of money to be the instrument for exchanging the natural riches which of themselves minister to human need. For money is called “artificial riches” seeing that a man who abounds in it may die of hunger; as appears from Aristotle’s example of the greedy king.
