Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle noted that before the invention of minted currency, people exchanged their surplus goods for items they lacked. This practice was known as Metadosis.
Ethnologists describe that in very ancient societies, there existed a strict hierarchy and complex exchange relationships similar to the Kula ring in the Western Pacific, bilaba and malaki in Central Africa, or Potlatch among the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America.
Currency, along with hierarchical relationships and dominance, is not something that emerged in modern times. It has existed in civilizations even older than those of the Mediterranean basin, the Near and Middle East, or Mesoamerica. The circulation of valuable items within these communities was a global phenomenon. In a sense, it foreshadows the functions of money as a medium of exchange and a unit for payment and accounting.
However, in these ancient societies, these basic functions had not yet become purely economic. They still depended on systems of kinship relationships and political, religious, and spiritual alliances that influenced labor supply, production organization, and the distribution of wealth.
Ancient currency was an active tool of social life. At that time, money was used for occasions such as childbirth, weddings, funerals, declarations of war, or peace treaties, and to compensate for material or spiritual damages, as well as to transact with deities overseeing life and death. Conversely, at that time, money was not used for repaying debts, wages, or purchasing goods.
The characteristics of ancient money, such as rarity and impracticality, are similar to some forms of currency today. Ancient currency foreshadowed the economic and political nature of money today: Economically, as it sets value for various activities and goods, thus anticipating the standardized payment methods we have today; Politically, money reflects, represents, and reproduces power relationships and the hierarchy among individuals or groups within society.
