Money is a Roman Traditional Practice

A polemic against co-opting the term 'money'.

Juno Moneta: The Roman Goddess of Money

I've been among and even inspired by the alternative/complementary/community currency space for a while - and even been involved in trying to convince people that they can and should create their own money. It wasn't until I started studying pre-monetary resource coordination (proto-social) practices that I began to see that "Money" was a particular frame of thinking - and a term that has its own traditional heritage.

When we examine money, we should also consider the protocols of ancient societies that gave rise to the term, seeking consistency and lineage. Lets do that in brief:

A Brief History of “Money” as a Tradition

• Circa 300 BCE: Coins minted at the temple of Juno Moneta (the goddess of protection of funds and minting of coins) in Rome (called money) were used for state transactions, payment of taxes, military and public expenditures.

• Feudal System (10th - 18th Century): After the fall of the Roman Empire, money from various regions was used primarily for trade among feudal lords, payment of feudal dues, and church tithes.

• Age of Colonization (15th-18th Century): European colonial powers imposed money in colonies for buying local goods, paying colonial administrators (hut taxes), and facilitating the extraction of resources.

• Rise of Nation States (19th Century): Money is minted and regulated by central banks, used for national trade, tax collection, military expenditures, and state-building projects.

• Digital Era (21st Century): Digital currencies and electronic payments emerge, facilitating online transactions and tax payments.

I believe we should push for the reappropriation of traditional terms, especially money, to reclaim it original significance and heritage. If ancient Romans were alive today they would likely recognize their Juno Moneta tradition in our usage of their money.

When we consider and even respect the historical and traditional roots of the term money – and even its common usage – for National Currencies today – the thing issued by authorities that you can/must pay taxes with – we acknowledge the deep-seated understanding people have of money. Common usage: ‘Money’ - is a term people all around the world have been traumatized by and it is well known what it is.

Polemic: Let’s stop using the name for a Roman tradition as the box we place all economic theory under or within. Not everything needs to be described as or by monetary theory or as money.

Much like cultural appropriation, the broad application of 'money' distorts its traditional heritage. We don’t need a new or diverse 'money' to save the world, but rather entirely different traditions. I’ve learned that there is no need to teach people in tribes across Kenya what money is – they know quite well what is is and how money was and is still used to enslave them.

And more importantly, we all might be able to learn some non-monetary, resource coordination practices that will shock and inspire us to think outside the money box.

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When studying proto-social practices like Bees in UK, or Corvees in France or Mweria, among the Giriama, or Nyoluoro among the Luo Tribes in Kenya, I would not be accurate to use the specific term Mweria or Nyoluoro or Bee or Corvee to generally describe all such practices or their elements. I've been using Commitment Pooling as a term for what I see as a protocol going on during these practices. In academia you might see terms like mutual aid, gift economy or rotating labor association (ROLA). The intersection of the Roman Money tradition with these other traditions is worth understanding. Metaphorical extension of 'money' to various resource coordination practices often misrepresents these traditions.

*Note that the usage of coins as taxation systems (what I am calling a Roman tradition) goes back even further than the Romans or Greeks and as well could have co-evolved in many locations.