I should be mentioned that using currency on a regular basis within communities is a very recent development, and gift economies have been the prevailing norm for most of history, really. Even on the empire level, a common problem into the 18th century for rulers was the lack of solid currency, since most taxes were paid in natura. The "fort owns everything" contrievance is a surprisingly accurate simplification - personally I would see intra-fortress exchange as a pretty low priority.
I've read quite a bit (a lot, actually) about medieval economy, and it's true : during the MA the two systems existed. Money was mainly used for everything in relation to the "outside" (some taxes, trade, military things, mainly), while the regular use of money for everyday-life was slowly spread among common people. If DF is in the "spirit of the 14th century", you should have very wealthy (and with high economic inequalities) cities with traders always travelling and badass houses(palaces), people who used modern accounting (paper money, negotiable instrument, assurance as Toady said, optimization of change rate, etc.), highly educated, and on the other hand you had people (80/90%) who lived very poorly (not that they were miserable) with nearly no money at all - even taxes were paid in kind. The rest (10%, who lived mainly in cities) used some money, some where paid in money (like in cites, artisans, masons or butchers -butchers were very powerful at that time- for example).
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3832584 times)