This entirely new view occurred about a hundred years ago, as I remember being told, around the turn of this century, or maybe a little later. This included the linking of paper money and coinage to the gold standard which supported the misnomer that money was actually worth something. Of course it makes sense from a rather limited viewpoint since this idea presumably emerged from the barter system. I'll exchange my 20 chickens for your one cow. A negotiated fairness.
Money obviously starts when it's a bore to drag the cows and chickens around.
Thus, we carried into the era of money the idea that it has some intrinsic worth. In this approach, money becomes an energy of value that can be moved around and manipulated. Money suddenly acquires an energy of its own that can increase separately from any attachment to material things. This inevitably led to a relinquishing of any relationship a nation's money might have to its value in gold. We know, for instance, that we are creative beings who are self-evidently the sons and daughters of God.