Tobacco — the money of colonial Virginia

In the colony of Virginia, for centuries, real money was scarce, but tobacco was abundant. So tobacco became money: wages, debts and taxes were paid in pounds of tobacco.

Advantages and inflation

It worked because everyone wanted it and could sell it. But it had a flaw: when harvests were big, the "money" multiplied and was worth less — an agricultural inflation. The same rule, a different form of money.