Outline of the Origins of Money

Heinrich Schurtz (1863–1903) was a German ethnologist who was trained and taught at the University of Leipzig. Enrique Martino is a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Historia, Teorías y Geografía Políticas of the Complutense University of Madrid. Mario Schmidt is a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.

• Foreword: The Institutional-Systemic Origins of Money, by Michael HudsonIntroduction: Heinrich Schurtz’s Anthropology of Money, by Enrique Martino and Mario SchmidtCHAPTER 1Anthropology and Economics. The Natural Monetary SystemCHAPTER 2The Beginnings of Property.Measure of Value and Valuable Property. The Origin of Inside-MoneyCHAPTER 3Forms of Inside-MoneyCHAPTER 4Sign-MoneyCHAPTER 5Sacred MoneyCHAPTER 6Accumulation of Property by Individuals. CountermeasuresCHAPTER 7The Influence of External Trade. Primitive Forms of Exchange. Outside-MoneyCHAPTER 8The Fusion of Inside- and Outside-MoneyCHAPTER 9Overview of Primitive Money. Ornament-Money in General. Shell-MoneyCHAPTER 10Other Types of Ornament-MoneyCHAPTER 11Metal as Ornament and MoneyCHAPTER 12Clothes and Fabric-MoneyCHAPTER 13Use-Money.Food and StimulantsCHAPTER 14Iron-MoneyCHAPTER 15Other Types of Use-MoneyCHAPTER 16Monetary Systems and Value RatiosCHAPTER 17Anthropogeographical Considerations. Ethnographic ZonesCHAPTER 18Money and Commodity. Conclusion.SupplementsNotesEditorial and Translation Note ReferencesEditorial References

"A classic to reflect on the meaning not only of money, but more generally of the concept of wealth, written by an ethnologist at the end of the nineteenth century. The author attributes multiple roles to money, far beyond that of a mere unit of account or a means to facilitate exchanges. The book helps investors to reflect on issues that are too often assumed to be immutable elements of our society, but also to understand the ongoing transition, in which new forms of money will play a primary role."