Hyborian pragmatism refers to trade that is not tidy and logical but is carried by pack-animals with an "ecosystem" of pests and germs. The pragmatic emphasis is on balance as opposed to hygiene; the picturesque physical situation is good for the health and the psyche.
Medieval or Hyborian trade-routes create strength through physical untidiness. By contrast, all information-systems are hygienic, which is a form of weakness.
The monetary system was created by the maritime powers by way of imposing import tarrifs, and was what Adam Smith called "Mercantilism". This has to be distinguished from profiteering Venetian mariners of the golden age.
The Venetian traders were travelling in ships round the Mediterranean; the body is active in-the-field. Monetarism is a creation of the head that imposes a logical order on events.
One counter-example is typical. The Romans imposed a 1% across-the-board levey on goods as the cost of running the empire. This increased to 3% in times of war.
Such piffling amounts are not monetary, they are purely pragmatic even if unloved by the Picts! Monetarism exists in the modern linguistic trap of information that attracts the ego of acolytes (of logic and order, or electromagnetic information).
One extreme example is microfinance, started by Yunus in Bangladesh, which imposed 23% for microloans to small farmers. Unsurprisingly, loan-sharks got involved and Yunus was eventually arrested!
In a more mainstream sense, a monetary order is the means whereby a logical system is produced or engineered. Modern scientists are monetary-engineers; they produce and engineer logical systems (whether DNA or robots). They have no interest in the disorder and robust health seen in-the-field (dirt and germs.)
Modern economies are generally said to tend either to Milton Friedman - create money - or to Maynard Keynes - create demand (for goods). However, if the goods are monetary-goods, the difference is mainly theoretical only.
We are going to be living in a smart-energy environment (the Amazon House), which means an information-environment, which means a logical order of the head and of s monetary order.
We are not going to be living in a "harvest-economy" of powerful deities of fertility!
Hunting and blood and pragmatic design are topics to come.
