02. Making a Market for Plunder

I read Ch 2 of my book, How to Dismantle an Empire, on the origin of money. Citing David Graeber's Debt, I look at the military-coinage-slavery complex and the myth of barter. I explain the gift economy that preceded money, in which relationships were valued above a bargain/ barter-gain. Religions of altruism are seen as a reaction to market-based greed. I conclude that money, from its inception, was trade in pieces of slave and that coinage coopted us into being shareholders in conquest.

Third Paradigm on Substack: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/
How to Dismantle an Empire: https://www.amazon.com/How-Dismantle-Empire-2020-Vision/dp/173334760