Kelton - along with other MMT believers - posits that money came into existence by some sort of nefarious plot to permit governments to tax trade, without offering historical evidence for her theory.
While the precise birth date and place of money is unknowable, the earliest form of money in Western civilization appeared in Lydia around 600 B.C. Herodotus says the Lydians "Were the first who coined and used gold and silver currency." The use of currency spread from its source until over half of the two thousand city-states of ancient Greece issued their own coins, but taxes were rare.
In Asia, the history of money goes back even further, 3,000 to 4,500 years, but the conclusion one reaches is the same; taxes were low and infrequent, imposed mainly in times of war.
So MMT's origin myth has things backwards; money preceded taxes, just as trade preceded taxes, and the more plausible explanation is that trade contributed more to the creation of money than taxes.
The first Dutch colonists in New York discovered that their Native American trading partners assigned a greater value to wampum - white and purple beads made from shells - than its actual utility, which is the essence of physical money; you can light a fire with a dollar bill, but you'd be better off buying a box of matches with it.
The supply of American money in circulation increased dramatically since Kelton's book came out to glowing reviews, comparing it to a Copernican revolution.
Over the three years beginning in February 2020, "M2," the Federal Reserve's estimate of the total U.S. money supply, was multiplied 1.35 percent, a remarkable increase in a time of peace.
https://spectator.org/kelton-the-modern-monetary-theory-meltdown/
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