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Comment by inglor_cz | Hacker News Reader

Romans produced so many coins that you can buy genuine Roman coins relatively cheaply online. They are found absolutely everywhere in the ancient port cities and Rome itself, every construction project will unearth a ton of lower denomination coins.

The Roman empire was thoroughly monetized.

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The bronze age wasn't. The way it worked seems to be that there was a guy who knew what you wanted, knew what you produced, and knew people who could produce what you wanted, and he supplied you with it, and wanted what you could produce in return. Acting as a sort of intermediary between everybody else.

Well, neither was the Stone Age, but why are you even talking about the Bronze Age under a link that discusses Pompeii?

The relevant event took place in 79 AD, long after the end of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean.

Because somebody claimed that you can't have organized society without banking, while for a long part of history there were organized societies without MONEY.

Well, yeah, now I understand.

You can definitely have organized society without banking, but AFAIK there was no organized society without some form of taxation, and few organized societies without long-distance trade (only in isolated places).

Taxes can be assessed as a percentage of production and collected as goods rather than collecting money amounting to the value of those goods.

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