Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible

Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible

By William N Goetzmann

"[A] magnificent history of money and finance. "-- New York Times Book Review "Convincingly makes the case that finance is a change-maker of change-makers. "-- Financial Times In the aftermath of recent financial crises, it's easy to see finance as a wrecking ball: something that destroys fortunes and jobs, and undermines governments and banks.

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Book Information

Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publish Date: 04/12/2016
Pages: 600
ISBN-13: 9780691143781
ISBN-10: 0691143781
Language: English

Full Description

"[A] magnificent history of money and finance."--New York Times Book Review "Convincingly makes the case that finance is a change-maker of change-makers."--Financial Times In the aftermath of recent financial crises, it's easy to see finance as a wrecking ball: something that destroys fortunes and jobs, and undermines governments and banks. In Money Changes Everything, leading financial historian William Goetzmann argues the exact opposite--that the development of finance has made the growth of civilizations possible. Goetzmann explains that finance is a time machine, a technology that allows us to move value forward and backward through time; and that this innovation has changed the very way we think about and plan for the future. He shows how finance was present at key moments in history: driving the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, spurring the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome to become great empires, determining the rise and fall of dynasties in imperial China, and underwriting the trade expeditions that led Europeans to the New World. He also demonstrates how the apparatus we associate with a modern economy--stock markets, lines of credit, complex financial products, and international trade--were repeatedly developed, forgotten, and reinvented over the course of human history. Exploring the critical role of finance over the millennia, and around the world, Goetzmann details how wondrous financial technologies and institutions--money, bonds, banks, corporations, and more--have helped urban centers to expand and cultures to flourish. And it's not done reshaping our lives, as Goetzmann considers the challenges we face in the future, such as how to use the power of finance to care for an aging and expanding population. Money Changes Everything presents a fascinating look into the way that finance has steered the course of history.

About the Author

William Goetzmann is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies, and Director of the International Center for Finance at Yale. He has written extensively on historical capital markets and investing. And as former director of Denver's Museum of Western Art, he co-authored the award-winning book The West of the Imagination.

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