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Money
Economy.
Intra-tribe barter may become inter-tribal barter and eventually, for
ease of transfer, the infusion of value into symbolic goods and the creation
of a money economy. As value
accrues to scarce materials such as gold, silver, bronze, (perhaps through
artisans’ desire for them) these materials become a currency.
Artisans can acquire them through intra-tribal exchange; others can
acquire them through discover or through conquest.
The complicated, stable, sedentary, hierarchical, specialized,
state-organized society generates tremendous pressure for barter and symbolic
barter to begin and increase. The
same degree of pressure is not felt by nomadic, hunter-gatherer societies.