From wikipedia:

Contrary to popular conception, there is no evidence that societies relied only on barter before using money for trade.[73] Instead, non-monetary societies operated primarily along the principles of gift economics, and in more complex economies, on debt.[74][75][76] When barter occurred, it was usually between strangers or would-be enemies.[77]

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If you want to learn a lot more about how economies worked in the past, I highly recommend the book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber, author of “Bullshit Jobs.” It goes into this topic, and then presents a very detailed world history of economic systems from the perspective of an anthropologist.

    • Atsur@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Graeber’s work, as always, is truly incredible. Such a shame he died so young

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        His last book, “Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real LIbertalia” is pretty good if you haven’t read it, if you don’t mind a lot of Malagasy names.

    • terraborra@lemmy.nz
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      3 months ago

      Came here to say exactly this.

      If you want to dive even further into why the foundations of modern macroeconomics are bunk, then I can also recommend reading Debunking Economics by Steve Keen.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      3 months ago

      That book radically changed my worldview, and then I read The Dawn Of Everything and it was changed again.

    • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’ve been meaning to read that book for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      Thanks for the recommendation! I had a reminiscent Reddit reflex, where I looked the writer up to see if it wasn’t a ‘guns, germs and steel’ type of popular history, but was pleasantly surprised.

      I have a bunch of reading to do now. Cheers!