IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/eme/reanzz/s0190-1281(2009)0000029009.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

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

In: Economic Development, Integration, and Morality in Asia and the Americas

Author

Listed:
  • Eileen Lustig

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Eileen Lustig, 2009. "Money doesn't make the world go round: Angkor's non-monetisation," Research in Economic Anthropology, in: Economic Development, Integration, and Morality in Asia and the Americas, pages 165-199, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:reanzz:s0190-1281(2009)0000029009
    DOI: 10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009/full/epub?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec&title=10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/S0190-1281(2009)0000029009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:reanzz:s0190-1281(2009)0000029009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.