One claimed origin of the idea has not been mentioned so far, the 16th
century School of Salamanca, proclaimed by Schumpeter in his History of
Economic Analysis to be the "founders of modern economic science."
Precursors of classical liberalism in many ways (very odd for Spain at that
time, and they did come under investigation by the Spanish Inquisition in
1582), and praised by some Austrian economists, their introduction of the
idea was limited to the idea of the value of commodity money being tied to
its scarcity, with not much going beyond that.  The founder of the school
was Francisco de Vitoria, but those who worked on this diminishing marginal
utility of commodity money idea were Martin de Azpilcueta and Luis de
Molina, who influenced the contemporary French political philosopher, Jean
Bodin.  A book that discusses their ideas in depth is by Marjorie
Grace-Hutchinson, 1952, The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish
Monetary Theory, 1544-1605.

Barkley Rosser