Natural growth of the Tiv economy

The traditional market system of the Tiv was one in which individual men could grow their own wealth by exchanging their items for items in higher levels of the market hierarchy, called by Bohannan "conversion." Bohannan illustrates this increase of wealth through an archetypal tale of a man starting with a baby chicken as a child and then eventually converting to an exchange marriage (p65). Naturally, the economy grew equally for all participants with good luck in the markets; however, when money was interjected into the Tiv economy, that growth ceased, as "Money does not ... reproduce itself or bear seed. You spend (vihi, literally 'spoil') money and it's gone" (p68). While items (certain types, at least) exchanged through the traditional market system possessed potentially infinite potential for wealth accumulation, money was a stagnant mode of exchange.

In our economy, it seems money only takes on life when something is sold for a higher price than for what it was purchased, yet even so we have rises and falls. In a system like the Tivs', would there ever be anything that could decrease collective, communal wealth other than a natural disaster? Inflation occurred in the economy after the introduction of money, but in a market of goods for goods, could there ever be inflation?

Additionally, in relation to Agapi Fos's response to this reading, I, too, noted the exclusion of land as a trade-able item; rather, land rights are distributed amongst male family members, so families within the same lineage remain organized spatially around one another (p63). However, practically, if land cannot be exchanged between strangers so that the collective amount of land designated to a particular lineage does not grow, at some point each descendant will inherit less land than necessary to produce the necessary amount of items to exchange in the market in order to live. What was the Tivs' solution to this dilemma?

Bohannan, Paul, 1955. "Some Principles of Exchange and Investment among the Tiv." American Anthropologist.