"Mark Peacock has provided a most welcome service to those interested in the origins of money; I know of no other source that brings the literature on this subject better together in one tidy package. Moreover, this is awell-written, accessible account that demonstrates a yeoman’s search through the literature: Peacock cites roughly 400 references supporting 182 pages of text. [...] I think a standard concluding chapter, rather than one on LETS would have been welcome. True, such conclusions often simply restate what has already been covered. But, this would have allowed Peacock to provide the reader with a trenchant summary, one that would end the book with a 'bang.' As it stands, Introducing Money ends with a whimper."

"Mark Peacock’s Introducing Money is a thrilling and quite unusual critical assessment of one of the most resilient pieces of conjectural history in economics: the ‘monetary lore’ of the origins and evolution of money, from barter to stamped coins. As Peacock says, most economists pick Adam Smith’s passages on the origins of money, in Wealth of Nations,chapter IV, as an archetypical account of money’s trajectory throughout history. In Peacock’s view, Smith’s account is well representative of the orthodox economic view that situates the origins of money in market. [...] Peacock aligns himself with historically meaningful approaches to money. [...] Introducing Money is a piece of erudition, necessary reading for historically concerned monetary economists.