Eli F. Heckscher found that in 16th century Sweden: 1) indirect barter was the most common exchange method and 2) monetary exchange was carried out with different coins, none a generally accepted medium of exchange. These findings refute the search and transaction cost models of the emergence of...

This paper explores, and rejects, the plausibility—advanced by a number of economists and recently re-affirmed by Robert Nozick—of employing an ‘invisible hand explanation’ to account for the existence of money as a medium of exchange. It argues that money is not necessarily more...