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For many decades economists have disputed with economic anthropologists over the origins of money. Economists claim that money emerged from barter exchange; anthropologists claim that it originated as a ‘unit of account'in the temples and palaces of ancient Mesopotamia. This book argues that money originated as a bargaining counter in a system of money-bargaining, emerging almost seamlessly from barter-bargaining. This is not the ‘money'of mainstream economic conception – a ‘veil'cast over a system of resource allocation defined in mathematical terms.Confidence in the bargaining counter is sustained through ‘support-bargaining,'a process in which individuals seek the support of their associates but seek at the same time to advance their own interests. A comprehensive ‘Introduction to Support-Bargaining and Money-Bargaining'is provided by the work. The arrival of coin-money is recognised by many as a crucial event in the history of mankind, and it is argued here that the distinctive character of support-bargaining in ancient Greek city states made possible the introduction of coin-money. The dependence of coin-money on a particular form of support-bargaining also suggests the reason why coin-money was not introduced much earlier, given that the technology for producing coins was available long before their adoption.This book will be of great interest to researchers in the history and origins of money, banking and economic theory more broadly.

We use money to solve our everyday problems, and it generally works well. Despite its economic benefits, however, money has a psychological downside: it trains us to think about negotiations narrow-mindedly, leading us to negotiate badly. Suggesting that we need a non-monetary mindset to negotiate better, The Bartering Mindset shows us how to look outside the monetary economy – to the bartering economies of the past, where people traded what they had for what they needed. The book argues that, because of the economic difficulties associated with bartering, barterers had to use a more sophisticated form of negotiation – a strategic approach that can make us master negotiators today. Now available in paperback, this book immerses readers in the assumptions made by barterers, collectively referred to as the'bartering mindset,'and then demonstrates how to apply this mindset to modern, monetary negotiations. The Bartering Mindset concludes that our individual, organizational, and social problems fester for a predictable reason: we apply a monetary mindset to our negotiations, leading to suboptimal thinking, counterproductive behaviors, and disappointing outcomes. By offering the bartering mindset as an alternative, this book will help people negotiate better and thrive.