has been received and is handed on.

     The omission of historians to study the revolution in the 
forms  of thought and social organization resulting from the 
phonetic alphabet has a parallel in socio-economic history. As 
early as 1864­67 Karl Rodbertus elaborated his theory of 
“Economic Life in Classical Antiquity.” In Trade and Market in  
the Early Empires  (p. 5), Harry Pearson describes his innovation 
as follows:

          This remarkably modern view of the social function 
     of money has not been sufficiently appreciated. 
     Rodbertus realized that the transition from a “natural 
     economy” to a “money economy” was not simply a 
     technical matter, which resulted from a substitution of 
     money purchase for barter. He insisted instead that a