On the Simultaneous Emergence of Money and the State

We construct a infinite-horizon political game where the production of a public good is delegated to a politician. The politician is controlled by finitely many citizens who, on the other hand, trade commodities and pay taxes on a voluntary basis. We provide conditions in terms of heterogenous beliefs under one single commodity is used both as a universal means of exchange and a means to pay taxes. These provide an analytical framework for the understanding of money as originating both from the private and the public sector simultaneously.