Fundamentally changing how civilizations run, trade, and grow, money is a pillar of human civilization and one of the most transforming and durable innovations of mankind. From personal daily transactions to sophisticated worldwide financial systems, the idea of money has expanded well beyond its basic function as a simple medium of exchange and becomes a complex force permeating all element of modern life. Reflecting our increasing expertise in resource management, developing economic linkages, and building ever more complicated systems of value exchange, this great history of monetary systems mirrored the development of human society itself.
The path of money's evolution starts in the first human communities, when the restrictions of pure barter systems became more evident as civilizations developed in complexity. The basic difficulty of the "double coincidence of wants" in barter systems—where both sides must have exactly what the other wants—created major obstacles to society's and economic growth's progress....