Carl Menger's account of the origin of money is deeply satisfying because it shows how money can develop from barter without anyone consciously inventing it. As such, it's a great example of Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand', or what scientists now call 'emergence'. Menger (1840-1921) founded the Austrian school of economics, a heterodox school of thought derided by many mainstream economists. Yet their accounts of the origin of money beg the very question Menger answered. The typical mainstream-economics textbook lists the problems of barter exchange and then explains how money overcomes these problems. However, that doesn't really explain how money actually got started, any more than listing the advantages of air travel explains how airplanes were invented. One is left with the impression that barterers, one morning, suddenly became alert to the benefits of monetary exchange, and, by that afternoon, were busy using some good as money. That, of course, is ridiculous. In Menger's account, money emerges through a series of small steps, each of which is based on self-interested choices by individual traders with limited knowledge. First, individual barterers realize that when direct exchange is difficult, they can get what they want by indirect exchange. Rather than finding someone who both has what I want and wants what I have, I need only find someone who wants what I have. I can then trade what I have for his good, even though I don't want to consume it myself, and then trade that for something I do want to consume. In that case, I will have used the intermediate good as a medium of exchange. Menger notes that not all goods are equally marketable; some goods are easier to trade than others. It therefore pays a trader to accumulate an inventory of highly marketable items for use as media of exchange. Other alert traders in the market catch on, and eventually the market converges on a single common medium of exchange. This is money.Question 5Which of the following is not one of the steps in Carl Menger's account of the origin of money?Barterers converged on a common medium of exchange.Barterers focused on accumulating highly marketable items.Barterers became aware of the benefits of monetary exchange.Barterers began exchanging goods indirectly.