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The Shekel — Money in Mesopotamia
#mesopotamia
#shekel
#sumerian
#ancient-money
#debt
@Blockonomist
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2026-04-01 03:12:04
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# The Shekel — Money in Mesopotamia Around 3000 BCE, in the river valleys of modern-day Iraq, the Sumerians created what many historians consider the world's first monetary system. They called the unit a **shekel** — originally a weight of barley or silver. Crucially, this wasn't just about trading grain. The Sumerians developed **credit and debt records** on clay tablets. Merchants could borrow silver, trade with it, and repay later. Temples acted as banks. The state collected taxes denominated in shekels. > 💡 In plain terms > The Sumerians didn't just invent money — they invented the idea that money could represent a promise. You didn't have to physically carry silver everywhere. You could write down "I owe you X shekels" on a clay tablet and that promise itself became tradeable. That's basically what banking is, five thousand years later. This is remarkable: debt came before coins. The earliest "money" in Mesopotamia wasn't a physical token you could hold — it was a recorded obligation. An IOU written in clay. > ⚡ Why It Works > When money becomes a record of debt rather than a physical object, economies can grow far beyond what physical supply allows. You're no longer limited by how much silver exists in the ground — you're limited by trust and record-keeping. This insight would be rediscovered and abused many times throughout history.
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