Proximo wrote:How was money first created in real life? Rome, Greeks probably some Persian kingdoms had currency very early. Why did they mint coins instead of bartering like the Gauls or other tribes?
It was probably when the larger cities started coming around. People who live in cities don't usually have land to grow food on. Not everyone was a farmer or even a craftsmen. Once civilization struck what did the plumbers, architects, construction workers, smiths, artists and all manor of laborers use to sustain themselves? I doubt they got payed in livestock or produce.
I strongly agree - people started using money as a more convenient trading object, because:
1. it's hard to find someone who needs exactly same items as you do at specific time, in specific quantities;
2. food rots, livestock dies - this would make only petty barters available, complicating development into larger tribes;
3. having a bag of gold/salt is more compact than huge storehouse (if we're thinking about big clans here).
Spartans used iron sticks, Baltic tribes used silver sticks - prisoners in WW2 concentration camps were left without any money at all, so they invented cigarettes as currency. Everything in history shows that there must be a unified trading object for everyone in this game, be it gold or iron. What's more than obvious here is that we need some kind of universal currency.
I disagree on game engine controlling the cashflow and value of currency - it might stop economical development and limit number of transactions because the lack of money. In many MMO's players set their own prices on valuable or rare items, ignoring what default prices are. We can do the same in LiF as well.
EVEN if developers will leave LiF without currency, I'm sure that players themselves will invent it inevitably because economy just doesn't work without any money at all.