The MMTers claim otherwise, that there’s no historical evidence of barter societies, that money was always created by government.

Which MMTers? It is nonsensical. The exchange of goods predates governments. Money is not always created by governments, what about cryptocurrencies? Even government created currencies are not controlled by those governments or only weakly. Many countries used other governments coins as their currency. The U.S.A. pretty much relied on foreign coins until the 19th century.

Pieces of eight are historical Spanish dollar coins minted in the Americas from the late 15th century through the 19th century. Made of silver, they were in nearly worldwide circulation by the late 19th century and were legal currency in the United States until 1857

In many ways trades made with “Pieces of Eight” was much like barter, trading silver for goods or goods for silver since the coins were often cut up into small pieces called “bits” one bit was an eighth of the coin, hence “Pieces of Eight” people traded bits of silver for goods and services.

During the California Gold Rush, raw gold, nuggets, flakes, etc. was a very common medium of exchange with miners exchanging their finds for goods and services and the vendors exchanging with each other using raw gold.

Even paper money can be viewed as barter when the paper money is backed by precious metals. U.S. issued Silver Certificates (paper money) that was redeemable for coins or bullion. The U.S. still issues legal tender coins made of Silver and Gold at face values much less than their metal value. Only a fool would trade them at face value, instead they barter them at or above the value of the metal.

Many Native American societies were barter societies. American colonists created a category of barter goods called “Trade Goods” used in exchanges of value between Native Americans and Colonists.

TEK