The history of credit card is anticlimactic after everything you have about the history of credit and debt so far. The credit token was developed in the late 1800's because stores wanted a faster way to complete transactions rather than have to lookup individual information or record the name and address of the buyer every time. To complete a transaction the clerk only had to record the identification number from the back of the token on the sales slip.

another instance of time savings inside the control function, i.e. tracking/orchestration of sales and transactions.

tags: control sales credit source

see also history of Visa http://usa.visa.com/about_visa/about_visa_usa/history.html