Who knows when exactly, but sometime millennia ago people began to specialize. Simplified, some produced wheat, some hunted for meat, and others grew corn. That's when money came into the picture.
Not a creation of the state, money was just a consequence of specialization and also a driver of it. Producers needed an agreement about value that would enable them to credibly exchange their surpluses with one another. Precisely because the producer of wheat wanted the hunter's meat, but the hunter didn't want wheat while craving the other farmer's corn, money became necessary. It freed people of varying wants to trade with one another.
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