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Well said. Although in pre-modern times, money, even metallic money, was not the major means of organizing people or resources for projects because exchange was not the principal social institution for obtaining cooperation of others. Family loyalty, faith, military allegiance, and other institutions were as or more powerful means of compelling others to engage in commitments with each other.  Fealty to a prince was as much a form of debt as a loan based on monetary notions is today because it resulted in the same kinds of distributions of real resources among stakeholders, just without using markets to do it.
by santiago on Thu Nov 3rd, 2011 at 05:41:23 AM EST
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And conversely, insisting that all debts be honoured in real rather than nominal terms is an attempt to grant the creditors the same feudal privileges enjoyed by the petty princelings of the premodern era.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Nov 3rd, 2011 at 06:14:53 AM EST
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