The word “wallet” appeared as early as the 1300s, and, notably, in 1609 when Shakespeare wrote it in the tragedy “Troilus and Cressida” (“Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, wherein he puts alms for oblivion, a great-sized monster of ingratitudes.”)
Further
In the 1800s, wallets adapted to their surroundings. Instead of holding money or food, they became used principally for tobacco and smoking accessories, especially in Spain and England. With just enough room to carry a bit of white paper, flint and a small piece of steel, the wallet was the pre-modern cigarette case. In Otis T. Mason’s essay “The History of the Carrying Industry,” he suggests that by the late 1800s, carrying food in one’s wallet was considered “uncivilized,” while attaching your wallet to your belt at all was considered only “semi-civilized.”