That is true that governments have coinage to collect taxes. This dates back thousands of years.
However barter was common in the market. Coinage carries a series of problems which people overlook. The biggest was often availability. When there is a shortage of currency, which is often the case, merchants still need to operate.
Here is where barter enters. Also, since the 1500s, it is also where ledgers started to become fairly common.
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