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How did people pay at pubs and inns before currency became widespread?

My first thought was trade, but it'd be awfully inconvenient to pack up some eggs or cloth everytime you wanna go to the bar. Was it preferable to carry small miscellaneous items for such a small purchase as a beer? I imagine well-known locals could just put it on their tab, but how would a stranger from a distant land be expected to pay for a bed and a meal?
 

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
I'm pretty sure metal was metal (like the bite test for gold). It could easily be melted down, so currency didn't need to be widespread.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
There were Letters of Credit, where someone trusted by both sides would vouch for the wealth and integrity of those involved. Then it might be a chain of "If I do X for you and you do Y for Z then Z will..."
Money/Currency has been around from [probably] the day after a few families decided to co-operate and made the first village.
Babylonian civilisations definitely had a working currency 4000+ years back [based on grains of Barley iirc]
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
Native cultures used shells as currency. So, if a person has a pub, they've gotta have a way of receiving payment. This is a sort of chicken and the egg thing, so I'd imagine as soon as you have a service industry, you need a successful currency system. If your stranger is traveling, he would know what has value. In the American West, many people didn't have cash money, so when they'd go to town, or go to a distant town, they'd bring goods on a pack horse--pelts, dried meat, found or foraged items of value. like truffles or something. Point is, there weren't many pubs or inns in a place that wasn't really civilized. People simply didn't travel and use them. If you're more of a lone traveler from a less civilized place, who doesn't have money and stuff, I'd consider giving him a bed roll and begging for space in the stable or something, and trading work. People were often employed at a place and bedded down int he kitchen or stable even in Victorian England, because that's all that was available. In return for their labor all day, the common people would be given a rough bed on the floor and no blankets, and a really simple meal, unlike the paying guests who got food with meat in it.
 

Russ

Istar
As far as I can tell currency goes way back to just about the same time that things like pubs, or public houses, or "hotels" etc existed.

You should see how much crap was written during the Roman era about currency, inflation, whose coins were good etc.

In many pre-currency or non-currency culture hospitality was a tradition and thus direct payment was not required. Many of those cultures utilized types of honour or favour in exchange for various things or were rewarded with enhanced prestige for acts of generousity.

Many religious groups maintained beds and offered meals to weary travellers with no pay expected.

If not there are plenty of small trade goods that could be used to barter. CM is also quite correct above on the fact labour is often traded for food and lodge.
 
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