Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“> The Unit of Account is for Denominating Debts The Medium of Exchange is for Discharging Debt, here and now The Store of Value is for Discharging Debt, later and elsewhere (“Properties and Tensions”) In other words, a “credit drawn on the sacred,” which is to say a continuation of the originary debt we owe the center. Let’s follow Buchman a bit further. He distinguishes between two origins of money, the “anthropological” one and the “political” one. > In anthropological money, the accounting follows the logic of kinship and religion, of the circulation of reproductive power (women) and justice (divine grace). Units of Account are taken from nature in the form of stable quantities of valuable material private possessions that represent wealth—heads of cattle (or people), units of shell or gems, bracelets or ingots of silver. These are prized and accumulated for their essentially religious value. But they do not necessarily become generalized media of exchange, used to lubricate markets. Rather, they are used to denominate payment in a certain circuit of social obligations by virtue of their prestige—their ability to store value. (“Origins: Reproducing Families and States”)”

— Adam Katz, There Is No Economy but Only the Debt to the Center: Money, Capital and the Tributary · Spring 2023 · Essays & Articles