For this purpose it worked perfectly. For the purpose of creating a prospering human society within the limits of a finite planet its workings is flawed. Money as imaginary symbol can evade the laws of thermodynamics that our real wealth, originating from our real planet, abide. Money can created and destroyed and in a way grow forever. In a finite world that means financial instability and ecological trouble, double trouble. But we can change it because as Tony Greenham says
“Wherever there are unmet needs, wherever there are spare resources, wherever we can use our creativity to put these two things together we can find new ways of exchanging values, we can find new ways of creating money because money is a social relationship”.
We can redefine our social relationships, our money, in a more fair way and design it to better respect physics so that it cannot grow forever and ever, staying within the limits of our planet. For example we could add to it the wear and tear (the idea of demurrage) real wealth, that money is supposed to represent, experience. Money is as work and economy. They are just tools to help us prosper within limits!