[nickbauman]

Thanks for posting! Burke uses the term "barter", which is wrong. Before coinage, people used credit. Barter was extremely rare.

[carlosjobim]

What do you mean? The credit is settled either in barter or coinage, isn't it?

[vundercind]

It necessarily has a unit of account, but you can undertake all kinds of transactions under a credit system with nobody involved exchanging, or intending to exchange, that actual thing (silver coins, goats, bails of flax, abstract “favors”, whatever)

[throw0101c]

> Before coinage, people used credit. Barter was extremely rare.

See also:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy