David Graeber

https://twitter.com/timstarr2001/status/1631385422856069133

1) History is based on written records. We have plenty of evidence of pre-literate societies with money. Therefore, money seems to precede literacy. Thus, the lack of written records of societies that transition from barter to money is unsurprising. 2) Credit is just barter over time. 3) Obligations can be precisely quantified, too. E.g., feudal lords were obliged to provide a certain number of fighting men at the request of their higher-ups in the feudal chain of command. Or, one can be obliged to serve a certain amount of time in the military, or work for an employer a certain amount of time. 4) Elsewhere, I've seen Graeber claim that money is always invented by States. However, this is disproven by Stateless societies with money, as well as trades between societies with and without States. That trade has often been by way of barter, as well as money. 5) Gift economies often acted as ways to invest in other members of the society, with the recipients of gifts being expected to give back more than they got at some point later on in the future. E.g., the Potlach ceremonies of the northeast American Indians. 6) Graeber's other lie was that European colonialists imposed head taxes on natives to force them to take wage-labor jobs, so they could pay the tax with their wages. The examples he sites in support of this were public works projects where native labor was conscripted. So, the purpose was to build roads, not to force natives to become wage laborers so they could pay taxes, and the labor itself was the tax.

https://davidgraeber.org/articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-maysurprise-you/