So, I know about goldsmiths and that they would write receipts for people storing their precious metals with them, and eventually that became a banking system where the notes were instead traded (correct me if I'm off base on this), but I'm curious about when villages or towns would make a transition like this. I would imagine that smaller groupings of people would trend towards a commune style of living or a basic barter system, trading their goods to get what they need, and then later we have cities where people are getting hired at a wage so that they can afford to purchase what they need at a market.
At what point does this come about and what are the driving reasons? Was there resistance? Would the first people offered a wage turn up their nose at it because it has no intrinsic value to them?
I'm going to try my best with this..
Society transferred from small bartering communities into a currency driven economy quite a ways back, but was also seen in developing areas in the much more modern era and are still seen today. I would assume before civilization, one's worth would amount to how one could forage or hunt. This is seen in Indian tribes as they bartered through skins, weapons, etc. They didn't have a monetary system as money had no value to them as they lived in a neolithic society. Now we can look at civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans. They over 2000 years old but had a monetary system. When a community with a substantial population forms, with the ability sustain themselves agriculturally and with the means and intellectual desires to create architecture, art, etc money comes into the picture. Money is only an agreed upon transaction that is given worth by the people giving and receiving (Such as people seeing continental money as worthless during the Revolutionary war). These denari used by the Romans were to pay people for services. These services would range from a variety of things clothes, food, live stock, housing. This was an agreed upon form of currency so one could exchange for what one needs. It'd be very hard for a person with nothing but a chicken to try and exchange eggs for clothing as the person who makes the clothes may not need eggs and if he takes the eggs who might take them from him as they might go bad. This opens the market up to many possible buyers.
Would the first people offered a wage turn up their nose at it because it has no intrinsic value to them?
This was actually a very problematic cause during the settlement of the America's (specifically the Colonies - Chesapeake Region). There are cases where Britain had a hard currency of gold and silver coins which was valuable to the merchants within the bay, but was hard to come by within the colony itself, as not only did they not have the currency but were also using different forms of currency as well. In Virginia, Tobacco was a sought after commodity and amongst the York and James river it was golden. It produced sweet tobacco. Now tobacco back then was actually used in a form of currency which allowed plantation owners to sell and buy things by giving people a leaf of tobacco with their name on it which came out to be so many allotted bushels of tobacco. People would trade these leaves amongst other things because it was an agreed upon currency.
Another example is gold. People claim gold has value because we give it value. When America went off the Gold standard in 1971 (nixon shock) and moved towards a Fiat system where the dollar floated. People were scared as they moved away from something that was concrete and could not not be created out of nothing, but people went with the action as to them the money was still used to buy and purchase.
If people are going to stay in their small communes then there is no reason why a bartering system can't develop but it also depends on the setting as well. Are they secluded or are they near an establishment? If they're secluded they may purchase with currency as we currently pay taxes, but if we're talking about historically when currency is established people will often take their items to market for money as that is their main source to gain material. Also a bartering system relies heavily on other people to be unselfish, reliable and caring which would be a very hard matter. Most points in history has people controlled in what they produce i.e. serfs, farmers. I probably jumped around a bit and apologize for it, but currency is only what is agreed upon by the people to have some intrinsic value or meaning.