I read an excellent book a few years ago, summarizing the conventional view, titled ‘A history of money’ by Glyn Davies (one of several editions, starting in the early 1990s I think), which I would strongly suggest to you to give you context and allow to map the landscape. A controversial, alternative thesis on the history and usage of money is provided by Innes, M. (1913, May, ‘What is money?’ in Banking Law Journal, 377-408). For a good article on the monetization of developing economies, see IMF Staff Papers (1977, 24, 665–721). I hope this helps.

Very helpful. Thanks!

I wrote a paper on this subject:

http://www.axiomaticeconomics.com/zarlenga.php

Dear Yannis Arvanitis,

I recommend Geoffrey Ingham's book

　　The Nature of Money, Cambridge,UK: Polity Press, 2004.

In money theory, there are two major strands: 

(1) commodity theory of money

(2) credit theory of money

The critique of Zarlenga against Menger discussed in the paper (a review?) that Victor Aguilar wrote is partly concerned with the conflict between two theories.

Ingham's book stands principally on the credit  theory of money. Menger and Aguilar stand on the commodity theory of money. 

Carl Menger's two papers

a French paper

• La Monnaie Mesure de la Valeur, La Revue d’Economie Politique (vol. vi)

and an English article,

• On the Origin of Money, The Economic Journal (vol. ii)

are one of the most famous papers standing on the commodity theory of money.

Thank you very much. Very helpful.

Some studies that might be useful which I came across recently are:

Akbar Marvasti; David J. Smyth

BARTER'S ROLE IN THE MONEY–INCOME RELATIONSHIP

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

Pacific Economic Review

Year:2006

Volume:11

Issue:3

First page:395

Last page:408

ALLA SEMENOVA

Would You Barter with God? Why Holy Debts and Not Profane Markets Created Money

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Year:2011

Volume:70

Issue:2

First page:376

Last page:400

Merwan Engineer; Shouyong Shi

Bargains, Barter, and Money

Elsevier - Academic Press

Review of Economic Dynamics

Year:2001

Volume:4

Issue:1

First page:188

Last page:209

EDWARD J. NELL

THE ADVANTAGES OF MONEY OVER BARTER

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

Australian Economic Papers

Year:1968

Volume:7

Issue:11

First page:149

Last page:166

Martin Shubik

The General Equilibrium Model: Barter and Trust, or Mass Markets with Money and Credit

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

Economic Record

Year:1974

Volume:50

Issue:2

First page:245

Last page:258

W.G Huff

Bookkeeping barter, money, credit, and Singapore's international rice trade, 1870–1939

Elsevier

Explorations in Economic History

Year:1989

Volume:26

Issue:2

Shikuan Chen; Yi-Cheng Kao

Money, barter, and consumption interdependence

Elsevier

Economics Letters

Year:2010

Volume:106

Issue:2

A. Marvasti; David J. Smyth

The effect of barter on the demand for money: an empirical analysis

Elsevier

Economics Letters

Year:1999

Volume:64

Issue:1

Emilia Ferraro

Trueque: An Ethnographic Account of Barter, Trade and Money in Andean Ecuador

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

Year:2011

Volume:16

Issue:1

First page:168

Last page:184

R. H. Barnes and Ruth Barnes

Barter and Money in an Indonesian Village Economy

JSTOR

Man

Year:1989

Volume:24

Issue:3

First page:399

Last page:418

Byung-Yeon Kim; Jukka Pirttilä

Money, barter, and inflation in Russia

Elsevier

Journal of Comparative Economics

Year:2004

Month:

Day:

Volume:32

Issue:2

First page:297

Last page:314

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Eric S. Maskin

A Walrasian Theory of Money and Barter

JSTOR

Quarterly Journal of Economics

Year:1996

Month:11

Volume:111

Issue:4

First page:955

Last page:1005

Lynn Abrams

“There Is Many a Thing That Can Be Done with Money”: Women, Barter, and Autonomy in a Scottish Fishing Community in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The University of Chicago Press

Signs

Year:2012

Month:SPR

Volume:37

Issue:3

First page:602

Last page:609

Joseph A. Ritter

The Transition from Barter to Fiat Money

JSTOR

American Economic Review

Year:1995

Month:03

Day:

Volume:85

Issue:1

First page:134

Last page:149

Caroline Humphrey, Stephen Hugh-Jones 1992

Barter, exchange, and value: an anthropological approach

Cambridge University Press

Nancy Tapper 2006

Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal Society [1 ed.]

Cambridge University Press

I just uploaded my old 2006 paper to Research Gate.  It is about Carl Menger's classic paper, "The Origin of Money" in the context of Stephen Zarlenga's criticism of it.

Article An Answer To Stephen Zarlenga

http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/JASD/article-full-text-pdf/E7163CA10469

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.348.6380&rep=rep1&type=pdf