Anthony,
 
Here is a link to an article from Psychology Today regarding monkeys and  
"money."  But one of the researchers was Marc Hauser, who has become  
notorious of late for "fudging" his experimental results.
 
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cultural-animal/200807/the-evolution-eco
nomic-rationality-do-monkeys-understand-money
 
Charles McCann
 
 
 
In a message dated 8/14/2013 6:25:29 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

An  English friend of mine, a novellist who writes about the  
Elizabethan  period, has decided (perhaps taking a page out of Margaret  
Attwood's  book) that she wants to do something on money.

I warned her about  reinventing the wheel and advised her to make a  
search of existing  material. The excerpt from her letter, below, lists  
some of her  concerns. [I have no idea what she means about 'treating  
an economy  as an ecology'.]

If any contributors to this List can help I should be  much obliged,  
and would pass on their answers to my  friend.

QUOTE:
I have so many questions about money.
The one  about the Roman empire's system of state and private credit is   
something I've been wondering about for years - IF they used a  credit  
note system and IF the temples (especially the temple of  Apollo) acted  
as clearing houses for them, that would account for  why Christian  
rioters normally burnt the records kept in the temples  and also might  
explain why the Empire fell apart only 20 years after  becoming fully  
Christian. Has anyone done any kind of study on  this?
Is there any evidence that the legend of Midas is an account of  the  
first major inflation caused by the King's debauching of the  currency  
(everything he touched turned to gold... Lydia was the  first to use a  
touchstone and the first to come up with currency  that was guaranteed  
a certain purity by the state.)
Has anybody  published any work that treats an economy as an ecology?  
Did they  run any models?
I know there has been some work done on macaques, teaching  them to use  
tokens that buy grapes as currency. Do any other animals  do this? Do  
any of them do it naturally? Who did the stuff with the  macaques?

Anthony  Waterman