Baked clay tablets written in cuneiform reveal that money power was the prerogative of the temples that served as civil authority. The first written language was cuneiform from Sumer that began approximately 3500 BC. The cover leaf dispenses with the myth of money originating as a solution to barter with…”not a shred of evidence to support it.” Text of the book reveals many variations of credit/debt/money relations in primitive as well as modernized societies from 3500 BC to 2011 CE. The book is 594 pages that include 391 pages of anthropological discourse on credit, debt, and money in 12 chapters, 59 pages of footnotes, and an extensive bibliography is included as well as index. The book is worth reading and will aid anyone to understand that the evolution of money as settlement of debt and its conversion to debt is far more complicated than a simple solution to barter with bits of precious metal. Reviewed by Robert Poteat, AMI Researcher Debt: The First 5,000 Years. New York, NY: Melville House.
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