I’ll Give you my Milk for your Juice Box.?

To say currency is something we NEED, is to misunderstand what currency is.

The root of the word gives it away: current.

Indeed currency is based on what is current, on what we value as a society. As such, we have currencies in beauty, strength, compassion, acceptance, love, ect...

Money is really the least of these, and certainly one of the least complicated.

I provide a service. I get paid.

I produce a product for sale. I get paid.

I then take that money and spend it on market valued items. It's a very straight forward exchange.

Sure, in other times other currency have been used. One of the major changes which occurred in Roman Europe after it collapse was a change in currency. The Romans used a tax and money system much like our own (It's a very lucrative system!), but the invading Romano-Gothic kingdoms based their wealth on land (The currency that sparked American colonialism).

However currency may change, it represents our values. People always value one thing more than another. Currency helps us keep track of those values.

Therefore, as long as people have had values and desires, currency has existed.