if you run a society on fish the fishmonger keeps a ledger of how many fish they gave to what people and barters for equally valuable things in return. if you bought a fish from the fishmonger for lunch this presents the problem that you cant pay them with a fish otherwise you wouldve eaten it yourself, so youd have to find something else to pay them with

I heard a story in which people in Shanghai were using tinned sardines as currency after WWII when the currency was practically worthless and the joke was a hungry guy getting rebuked for opening one of the tins: "they're for spending, not for eating!" (funnily enough canned goods briefly became hard currency again during the strict Shanghai lockdown in 2022). it's reminiscent of the scene with…