Money exists to solve a problem bartering can't

A farmer with wheat who wants shoes has to find a shoemaker who happens to want wheat — a 'double coincidence of wants' that barter economies rarely satisfy. Carl Menger argued money emerged spontaneously as traders converged on whichever good was easiest to resell, not from any government decree.

— Carl Menger, On the Origin of Money — Economic Journal, 1892

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