Money: A History

Money: A History examines the origins, spread and cultural diversity of money throughout the world. From the exchange systems of earliest times to the increasingly cashless society of today, money and currency is set against a background of broader issues such as moral, political and religious attitudes to money in different cultures. Coin specialists from the British Museum trace the development of monetary systems from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the invention of coinage in Lydia in the 7th century BC and its dissemination throughout the Greek and Roman empires. They consider money in the medieval West and the Islamic lands, in the ancient civilizations of India and China, and in the early modern period in the West. The book also examines the consequences of the globalization of the world monetary economy in the 19th and 20th centuries from more than a purely Western perspective.