000			02007nam a2200193Ia 4500
001			4863
008			250217s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9781844674770
100			_aVilar, Pierre _96946
245		2	_aA History of Gold and Money: 1450-1920/ _cPierre Vilar
260			_bVerso; _c1984
300			_a360p; _c23x15cm
490			_aVerso World History Series
520			_aFor much of human history, the motive force behind war, conquest, social conflict and world exploration has been the drive to acquire gold. From the ancient world of Croesus to the wealthy dynasties of Renaissance Italy, from the earliest European explorations into Africa, America, and Asia to the gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the banking crises that lay beyond them, Pierre Vilar depicts the awesome power of avarice to structure the world in which we live. The insidious power of gold and money is the subject of this enlightening and entertaining history. The age of exploration brought an influx of treasure into Western Europe, prompting disputes between theologians and early economists over the causes of inflation in the sixteenth century. In time, American silver distorted metropolitan Spanish society beyond recognition. Vilar goes on to examine the roots of the modern banking and financial systems in institutions founded in Holland, England and France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And in the nineteenth century, the gold rushes of Australia, California and South Africa generated new modifications in the international monetary system. Vilar concludes the story of these developments with a discussion of the crisis of the 1920s that, in the wake of the world credit crash of 2008, is more pertinent than ever. A History of Gold and Money provides a unique work of synthesis on the role of money in modern economic history.
546			_aEnglish
650			_aHC10-1085 Social Sciences- Economic history and conditions _92907
650			_aMoney _96947
942			_cBK
999			_c4863 _d4863