Necessity is the mother of invention

"Just as it is possible to construct a theory of the emergence of money based on principles of agent preference and action," writes James Caton in The Emergence of the State Monopoly over Money, "so too is it possible to build a theory of the state monopoly of money with such principles."

It's possible, I suppose. But it seems to me that if you are considering the emergence of the state monopoly over money, you would want to base your theory at least in part on the historical record. As opposed to just making shit up.