Origin of money, six theories | Reading "The Social Life of Money"

1. Barter (Menger)  -Metalism
this one is the most accepted theory and is widely taught in all kinds of textbooks. Basically it implies that money originates from barter exchange, some good evolved into a common acceptable good that can be used to purchase other goods.
critics: lacks historical evidences, instead, money's birth may very depends on authority's mandate which is supported by evidences; It cannot explain why all agents choose a particular asset as "money"; Einzig argues that Menger's theory underplays barter's adaptability.

2.Tribute (Laum) -Chartalism
Those payments associated with religious or political functions may be the real origin of money.
Ancient rulers collect tribute long before the use of money as a means of exchange and market emerged. Money originated as a means of payment of sacrificial payment, alongside various debts, fines and tribute...
This theory supports chartalism, which claims that the state is the source of money. (Money originated as a debt to the gods, this debt evolved as a debt to rulers and states)

3.Quantification (Simmel) - Cultural alienation
Deal with the conditions of possibility of money's originating. How is money possible?
Emphasis on the importance of subjective desire in the formation of value. Money represents the generic idea of value. By virtue of its objective and abstract character, money is capable of standing in for any specific, concrete value in the process of exchange.

4.Mana (Mauss) -Human economy
The notion that money is a colorless and anonymous tools for utilitarian economic behavior has been increasingly challenged by studies richly demonstrating that monetary transactions of many different kinds (from intimate domestic exchanges to major business deals) are socially and morally codified.
Money was a gift. (this theory has overlap with tribute theory)
Money's purchasing power is primordial, it is an expression of social power that is rooted in the affective states generated by collective life.

5.Language (de Saussure) - digital money
...money as a symbolic medium of communication that fulfilled specific functions of language...
money is inherently metaphorical as language. Money connects what would otherwise be unrelated.
Capitalism has replaced linguistic signs with code - digital money

6.Violence (Aglietta & Orléan) - social power
as a by-product of gold's historic dependency on slavery....