
I like this quote about how financial institutions evolved:
"It happened improvisationally, indeed probably unintentionally. Participants solved one problem and created others; they reacted as often as they acted affirmatively; they moved by experience and intuition, without an overarching theory; and the whole affair took decades, involved many different actors, and coheres largely in retrospect."
Money as debt, that I would argue is the modern conception of money, as opposite to an asset (like cigarettes in a prisoners camp or gold), comes from the state.
For examples of this I would recommend the book "Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism" by Christine Desan.
Also, accounting (and maybe even numbers and writing!) were invented initially as a way as registering debt in Mesopotamia by what today we would call 'the state'
>> It's the idea that markets know what is better for us what many reject. >"I don't understand who is making that argument."
I don't understand what you say here. Maybe I misunderstand, but it's not the whole point that markets deliver better solutions for everybody that any kind of central planning?
I'm not sure how what I mean for 'us' is difficult to grasp. Human societies?
