Mesopotamia used credit that was fiat in nature... not commodity money. They recorded debts on tally sticks (which could be traded much like bonds currently are). The debt wasn't backed by a commodity. Debt began to be backed by a commodity when coinage began circulating. Due to people confusing the coin which was meant to reflect a magnitude of debt with the wealth it represented. Both the original form of credit and the coinage that followed was fiat in nature. Free market money comes much later
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