"The origin of currency is the creation of a circulating medium of exchange based on a unit of account which quickly becomes a store of value. Currency evolved from two basic innovations: the use of counters to assure that shipments arrived with the same goods that were shipped, and later with the use of silver ingots to represent stored value in the form of grain. Both of these developments had occurred by 5000 bc . Originally money was a form of receipting grain stored in temple granaries in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
...
"However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place that was safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency

Your fur story is problematic on a number of levels- one being fashion is normally something silly women find important. And if more people have it, the more valuable it is.
A successful chief is generally more interested in power:

"Within it, hierarchical relations within and between clans, villages, and nations, are observed and reinforced through the distribution or destruction of wealth, dance performances, and other ceremonies. The Status of any given family is raised not by who has the most resources, but by who distributes the most resources. The host demonstrates their wealth and prominence through giving away goods or by burning the resources accumulated for the event. Dorothy Johansen describes the dynamic: "In the potlatch, the host in effect challenged a guest chieftain to exceed him in his 'power' to give away or to destroy goods. If the guest did not return 100 percent on the gifts received and destroy even more wealth in a bigger and better bonfire, he and his people lost face and so his 'power' was diminished." "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch