He also claims that the standard economics texts cite no evidence for suggesting that barter came before money, credit and debt, and he has seen no credible reports suggesting such.

To support this, he cites numerous historical, ethnographic and archaeological studies. This is the opposite of the narrative given in standard economics texts dating back to Adam Smith. Graeber claims that debt and credit historically appeared before money, which itself appeared before barter. In ancient Israel, the resulting amnesty came to be known as the Law of Jubilee. Because of the social tension that came with this enslavement of large parts of the population, kings periodically canceled all debts. In this early form of borrowing and lending, farmers would often become so mired in debt that their children would be forced into debt peonage. Graeber lays out the historical development of the idea of debt, starting from the first recorded debt systems in the Sumer civilization around 3500 BCE. Reception of the book was mixed, with praise for Graeber's sweeping scope from earliest recorded history to the present but others raised doubts about the accuracy of some statements in Debt, as outlined below in the section on ' critical reception'. can even come to be seen as the very basis of freedom and autonomy'. Graeber proposes that the second argument follows from the first that, in his words, 'markets are founded and usually maintained by systematic state violence', though he goes on to show how 'in the absence of such violence, they. It draws on the history and anthropology of a number of civilizations, large and small, from the first known records of debt from Sumer in 3500 BCE until the present.Ī major argument of the book is that the imprecise, informal, community-building indebtedness of 'human economies' is only replaced by mathematically precise, firmly enforced debts through the introduction of violence, usually state-sponsored violence in some form of military or police.Ī second major argument of the book is that, contrary to standard accounts of the history of money, debt is probably the oldest means of trade, with cash and barter transactions being later developments.ĭebt, the book argues, has typically retained its primacy, with cash and barter usually limited to situations of low trust involving strangers or those not considered credit-worthy. It explores the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a book by anthropologist David Graeber published in 2011.

Graeber 5000 years of debt