Imagine how life must have been for early humans. They lived in close family groups, probably quite small in size. Because everyone knew everyone else, people wouldn’t have much need for selling skills. Within a community, property was likely shared. Exchanging use of this or that item was easy and clear. You knew your neighbor’s character, skills, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and needs—which were pretty much the same as yours.
Nobody really had to “sell” anything to anyone else. But then something new happened. One day, a stranger came to town. Your family’s first reaction might have been to drive him off, maybe even kill him. After all, who knew what ills an outsider might bring? But the stranger had something you had never seen before, something to trade—perhaps a tool, a trinket, a particularly well-crafted hunting stick. Suddenly the dynamic changed. You realized there might, after all, be a reason to welcome the stranger, albeit warily.
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