Money doesn't make the world go round: Angkor's non-monetisation

Eileen Lustig

A chapter in Economic Development, Integration, and Morality in Asia and the Americas, 2009, pp 165-199 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: It has been observed that, in contrast to other Asian and Southeast Asian polities, there are no records of monetary transactions in Angkor's 6th–14th century inscriptions, and no reference to a unit of account after the late 8th century. Explanations for this have been offered, but none of them have much support. In fact, a considerable range of monetary concepts are expressed throughout the study period, and it is unlikely that there was no unit of account. Differences between records of temple inventories and exchange transactions suggest that perhaps display was more important in temples, and that quantitative values such as weights were important in the exchanges. An explanation for the lack of monetary transactions may lie in the fact that the epigraphy is written by and for an elite seemingly concerned more with merit, hierarchy and display of wealth than bureaucratic detail.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:reanzz:s0190-1281(2009)0000029009

DOI: 10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009

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