This introductory chapter presents the topic of money’s emergence in the eastern Mediterranean centuries prior to the invention of coinage, an important development with far-reaching effects, placing the study of money in early antiquity in the framework of thinking about the origins of money in human societies. The study of early money in the eastern Mediterranean Iron Age contributes to a better understanding of the interregional processes that shaped the eastern Mediterranean world from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age, while at the same time providing valuable insights into the important question of how money came into being. It would, however, be a mistake to assume that money has a single historical origin. Rather than being the result of a linear evolution, it is argued that money’s importance in the politics of value in any given society can rise, transform, and subside depending on the circumstances.

Markets are intersections of buyers and sellers brought together to exchange goods and services most efficiently, so the theory goes. In fact, markets are also connected to barter and exchange and to their underlying value: resourcefulness. We look at Nina Katchadourian and her artwork made on airplanes ("Seat Assignment") as an example of resourcefulness, Caroline Woolard’s Work Dress as an example of barter, and Elizabeth Cleland’s exhibition as an example of equivalencies created by markets. We introduce supply and demand, how the graphs are constructed, and how to think about shifts in supply and demand.

The historian can glimpse prison networks, and connections between incarcerated participant women, at points where their activities clashed with prison regulations. Evidence of prison exchange networks was revealed when collusion was reported to officials, when illicit material goods were discovered on bodies or in cells, or when gossip about another inmate or staff member reached staff ears. Chapter 4 interrogates information and material goods transactions to discover the workings of networks and relationships behind bars. It offers an insight into ways the prison economy could facilitate networks that enabled women of different ages, backgrounds and circumstances to connect. The chapter is divided into three distinct sections. The first examines the exchange of information in prison, the second focuses on material goods networks, and the third considers how exchanges of information and goods impacted power relations and hierarchies. Evidence of female networks and partnerships indicates convict ingenuity and enterprise, cooperation and collusion. The prison thus offers a snapshot of nineteenth-century Irish society and a glimpse of (predominantly lower-class) female networks and relationships. This chapter demonstrates that in prison, as on the outside, community networks and cooperation were vital for social and economic survival.