Comment Re:they will defeat themselves (Score 1) 981
Trade has existed long before mathematics were formally codified.
Not really. The whole 60 seconds to a minute & minutes to hours is because the Babalonians used a base 60 counting system for trade - that's pushing math in trade back 5K years to when they BUILT THE WHOLE NUMBER SYSTEM AROUND IT.
Individual barter goes back earlier, but pretty much as soon as you get into "Trade", you need math to handle it.